Sunday Sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, Cornerstone Church, 8 Oct 2023 

Esther 4:14:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

1 Samuel 30: 11-19- 11 Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. 12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?” So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.” 16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 

How many of you believe that God is able to do something powerful for you? 

• It may be to open a way for you, heal your disease, deliver you, bless you with children or anything else. God is able to do something for you. 

God is bigger than all your problems. He is bigger than everything that comes against you. 

• Daniel 3 says, our God is able to deliver us as said by Daniel’s three friends. He is the God of unexpected places. 
• We read in Esther 4:14 that if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. If you do not act, God will bring deliverance from somewhere else
• ESTHER 4:14- There is a plan for God to work at someplace. But if they don't act, HE will bring the deliverance from another place. He will bring it about from an unexpected place. Just look to the Lord.

There are ten thousand of ways how God can deliver you or do something for you.

• When people who and places where you expected don't do anything, God will do it through unexpected people and unexpected places.
• Mordecai is asking Esther for help. Esther says ‘no’. That when he speaks to Esther 4:14. He says if you stay quiet now, you and your family will be destroyed but God will bring deliverance from another place.

THE HOLY SPIRIT GAVE THREE REVELATIONS TO ESTHER

1. God alone is the source of my victory - an awareness of this truth.

• God alone is the source of your healing, of breakthrough, of deliverance, of your success. It is not anybody else, not your parents, or pastor, friends, neighbours, classmates or doctors. It is only the Lord who is behind every blessing and every victory.
• Be conscious of this and if you are you will experience God’s deliverance in your life. God showed Esther favour. A Jewish slave woman becomes the queen. It was the Lord who raised her to that position. Upon wearing the queen clothes, don't forget that you were once a slave girl, you were an orphan girl. You reached where you are because of God showing you favour.
• A poor shepherd boy became a king David and he had the realisation that the Lord is His shepherd. When you were a nobody it was The Lord’s love and His Hand that lifted you up. God is making me sit here in the pulpit and minister His Word to you from being a ganja addict.
• God has a plan and purpose in your life. You may have left many things for God but God who called you and Promised you is faithful. May the Holy Spirit give you that conviction. • Esther, you stay humble. You have nothing else apart from what God gave you. Now don't play queen. Don't think you are so important.
• Are you conscious that it is the Lord who gave you your business, your family, your children, your jobs? Are you conscious of this? if you are, God’s help will reach you in the midst of your problem.
• Your prayer, your Bible reading, your worship, your service in the church is what has kept you thus far. So, continue to give first place to the Lord, Esther! 

Mathew 6:33- Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and ALL these things shall be added unto you.

• Give God the first place. Look to His face. Give Him the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place. Give Hi all places.

2) God can replace anyone.

• God has given you an opportunity to serve Him. a position, beauty, power. If you do not give glory to God and if you become proud God can replace you.

If you won't do it, God will do it through somebody else.

• But God is trusting you now, Esther. God is trusting you to do something, if you say no, someone else God will raise up to deliver the Israelites. Today if I say no, God will raise somebody else to shepherd the church. 
• Some people in the worship team and ushers’ team say, they can't come for practice. You may be too busy, but that’s fine. God will raise up somebody else. God is sovereign. He can do His work through somebody else. 
• Some people say, we are with you in the spirit! What if I also decide to be here only in spirit? What if we are all just a bunch of spirits here? Then we can really have a holy “Ghost party”

Nehemiah 2:20- 20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore, we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem. 

• We His servants will arise and build, but you won't have any portion in Jerusalem. GOD is not a debater to anybody. God have mercy. Help me to stand faithful to you.

Acts 1:20 talks about Judas- it says somebody else had taken his place. It says his place is taken.

• There is a move of the Holy Spirit and revival in this nation. Call on the Lord and say “Lord, do not pass us by”. If you do, you will be a part of one of the greatest move of the Holy Spirit ever. Be a participant and not an observer. 
• Imagine if you were a part of the Indian Parliament, wouldn't you consider it an honour? If you are a part and participant in the move of the Holy Spirit, wouldn't that excite you? Isn't that a greater honour? You are a part and parcel of the move of the Holy Spirit! You are a part of the Lord’s body! 

3) God has multiple channels of blessing.

Ester 4:14- Mordecai says- If you keep quiet now, I will open another channel of deliverance for the Israelites. God will raise up somebody else. When the lockdown started, the Holy Spirit told me, I will raise up people. I will convert the stones into minsters if you need them and if I need them for my work! Don’t look to your family and neighbours. God has a plan. And He will raise up who He needs to fulfil his plans. 

Adeboye, an anointed man of God has an experience. One of the minsters on his team Ajjaih worships on the Saxophone before Ps Adeboye comes on stage to minster. Ajjaih was actually on his death bed and his lungs were giving way. Ps Adepboye had gone to pray for him and asked him if he would serve God if he lives and Ajjaih responded yes! and God healed him and gave him a new pair of lungs. Since then, for the last 30-40 years, he has been playing the saxophone before Ps Adeboye’s ministry. No office, no worldly music after that. God gave Him a chance and He made full use of it.

• You have to place Jesus first. Someone has prayed for every blessing you have today. If you are serious about God and if you placed Jesus first, you will be at church at 8.55 AM 

before the service starts at 9.00 AM. No matter how far you live, you will reach church on time, if Jesus is first in your life. Lift up your hands and worship Jesus.

• God can use anybody to decorate your life. Mordecai said to Esther, I will not beg you, if you want to do it, then it's fine. My source is God. The deliverance of Israel is not in your hands, it is in the Hands of the Lord. He is only giving you a chance to work for Him. 

God is behind your blessing and not a person or your job. 

• Don't give complete credit to a person for having helped you but it is the Lord behind him. Even if your pastor doesn’t help you, God will open another way of blessing for you. Don’t beg and plead with people to help you. If they don’t, God will help you through someone else.

Who are you looking at? Who are you expecting help from? Your blessings don’t come from your lands, businesses or your properties but it comes from the Lord. 

• If you say, ‘pastor, my business will be crushed if I don’t get this person’s deal, then you are not really trusting the Lord! You are an idol worshipper. Your dependencies, trust and expectation are only from the Lord.

1 Samuel 30, we see a place called Ziklag which was attacked by the enemies of David. They lost wives, children and all they had. Even those who were with him wanted to stone David. But That was not the end. David immediately went down to inquire of the Lord. Until then they were all praising and trying to please David. People make cutlets for their pastor one day and the other day they want to stone him.

David enquired with God, First. 

• At Ziklag, David lost everything. Yet David pursued them and recovered ALL!! 

The Holy Spirit told me very clearly that You will recover all. Your health, honour, finance, wealth, strength, relationships. What did you lose? Everything will be restored by the Lord who is in the midst of you.

• I will have a restoration of ALL things in the Name of Jesus. You may lose things by sin, wrong choices, carelessness, lack of focus, laziness or perhaps somebody stole things from you. It doesn’t matter how you may have lost things but the Holy Spirit says that you will recover ALL. It may be looking impossible. Even your marriage, your spiritual life, everything will be recovered. 
• In Joel, we see that the Lord restored the YEARS that the locusts have eaten. Many of you may be thinking that you have lost many years and you have not done what you should have done much before. But no, it’s time to seek the Lord.
• When David asked God, He said, “You pursue and you will overtake”. Don’t be casual. You pursue. Move fast. God told him to move fast. He moved fast and he came to an unexpected place. He came to an Egyptian who was the slave of an Amalekite. He was dying. David is pursuing and then he sees this person lying on the road. Egyptians were 

Israelites’ enemies, despite which David stopped, spoke to him, enquired about his family and started to talk to him. God spoke.

When he showed kindness from his heart, David recovered all. 

• When you care, you will recover all. When you care even about your enemies, you will recover all. If you are ready to show mercy and be ready to help even those who have raised against you and call themselves your enemies, you will recover all.
• The God of David is a God of unexpected places. Show love and kindness to your enemies. No matter how far the enemy has gone from you.
• Because David helped the Egyptian, and because he did so, David’s journey became short. This Eunuch says, “I was with the army that you are looking for, I know where they are. I will help you find them.” 

Never look down on anybody or anything. Never be arrogant. 

• He was diseased and he was cast out by his master. But you have a master in heaven who will not cast you out if you are diseased. His master did not think of him as useful or resourceful. He was seen as useless. He despised him and threw him out.
• Don’t ever look down on anyone or anything. Even a business idea. Some of you may look down upon a “Selling vegetables” business idea. You may say, “No way! I have a double Ph.D, how can I sell vegetables?”. “I studied in Oxford and now you want me to do a water business?!” Some people have lost their blessing because of this attitude. 
• If you are looking down on something, God will never help an arrogant person. You can never be sure what unexpected places God will send you deliverance from. You never know! 
• Steve Jobs’ big company also started in a small garage. Bill Gates too. Multi-national companies started small. 
• Never despise anybody. God can even work through your enemies. God can work through different situations. He can work in unexpected places through unexpected people. • Namans’ deliverance happened through a young maidservant. What if Namaan had said, who are you to tell me this? In fact, he had even challenged the prophet saying why should I go to Jordan, as if there are no rivers in my kingdom. But he did it and saw his healing. Jordan is an unexpected place of healing but obedience brings the blessing. He is a God of unexpected places. 

Even if you give attention to helping somebody else, God can open a door for you. 

• In Genesis 18, we see that three angels were travelling and Abraham saw them. He did not realize they were angels. But he ran to them to check if they needed help and invited them for a meal. He would have missed a chance if he had first gone to ask Sarah for permission. Many times, we need the permission of our wives to call people for lunch! And Sarah cooperated too. She made bread for them with her own hands. If Sarah had been stingy, she would have been still crying for a child today. When I am hospitable even towards unexpected guests, then I will see my breakthrough because God will open a door.

They were unexpected guests but since you hosted them, God will open a door.

• The Word says in Hebrews 13, that by entertaining strangers, some have entertained angels unaware. Our solutions do not come the way we expect. It is unexpected. • You may be looking to your uncle in the US but it may be your old schoolmate who may end up being used by God to bless you and open a door over your life.

Proverbs 16: 7 (MSG BIBLE)- 7 When God approves of your life, even your enemies will end up shaking your hand 

• The crows fed Elijah. It was unexpected. Would ravens come and feed any man? God provided from the house of a widow in Zarephath in the season of famine. It is unexpected. When the prophet gets to her place, she is actually in lack herself and is about to die. We may have thought that we landed at the wrong address. But she had a seed. What is within you is a seed. The anointing brought out that seed. 

John 4:11- 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water 

• Jesus is hungry and tired and thirsty. The disciples weren't with Him. A wayward woman, a woman with many husbands and relationships came to HIM. Jesus began to speak with her. Any person who has an encounter with Jesus will see their lives changed and transformed no matter how wrongly they may be living their lives. 

The Holy Spirit told me that God is going to use unexpected people for revival. 

The woman met Jesus and brought the entire city to Jesus. You may know to speak Greek and Hebrew and maybe knowing the whole Bible, may have attended Bible school but this woman did what you could never do! 

God can use an unexpected person. God can speak through a donkey. God can get money out of a fish. God can touch the world through stammerers. One quality they had- They HAD BEEN WITH JESUS. Be with Jesus and you will be thrust by the Holy Spirit into certain unexpected move of the Spirit.

BE WITH JESUS!