Today in the fifth day of the fast God keeps on doing miracles by humbling people’s hearts through the prayer of repentance. Through Pastor Malomedov’s prayer of repentance God touched many people in the auditorium, by crushing and destroying the spirit of fatherlessness and instead filling them with the spirit of adoption and acceptance.
Pastor Sunday accepted Pastor Alexander as a son!
Today was a special word from special speakers. Pastor Vladislav Serikov and his wife, Pastor Yelena Kostina, not only made a long journey in order to attend the fast, coming from a distant island Sakhalin (Russia) but also brought a team with them of 40 people.
“These days of the fast are so special!” – said Vladislav. He shared his testimony of how he has been looking for a spiritual father. When he came to the Embassy of God Church (back in Manezh) and saw Pastor Sunday, he said to himself: “Dad, I found you!”
Pastor Vladislav spoke in depth on the topic entitled “Care for the father”. It may have been a simple theme but very pertinent.
What is care? This is a complex system of action directed on someone with the purpose of prosperity.
Prosperity – is an absence of fear, worries and anxiety. It means that you have to do everything to make sure the father is focused on what God has entrusted him without interruptions on worries.
Care – is the purpose, one of the vision parts, to make sure the father always has the good. This theme is delicate. “Today one thing will break you, tomorrow another thing may brake you even more, but on the next day God will lift you up!” – says the Pastor.
“The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored” Prov. 27:18
Pastor Vladislav especially explained this portion of Scripture: “protects their master”
- A son honors his father with finances. Finances are a very good indicator of love. It is very important to love and honor not just in your words but it is essential to act on it.
- A son takes care of the his father’s memory, he honors his father’s commandments.
The theme was continued by Pastor Yelena (island Sakhalin). She was very specific in her teaching about practical care and honoring the parents by giving examples of how children honor their parents in the Eastern countries.
How a son should honor his father:
- Take care of the word that was given to you by your father, making sure it will not be lost or forgotten but fulfilled.
- Protect your father’s honor.
- Take care of the culture and behavior around you: if you see any kind of disorder, do your best to improve it.
- Be ready to serve at your father’s house.
- To any place we come to we bring the beauty of fellowship, and as we leave, we must leave it clean.
- If two people are having a conversation and one of them is younger and another is older, first ask the older one permission to speak with his discourser.
- If an older person is talking to someone, do not walk through them, as it would be disrespectful.
- Do not make jokes and do not laugh at your parents – by doing so you would be humiliating them.
- Stand, when your father or mother come into the room.
- To honor means to make sacrifices and often pay a price.
- Care for your parents’ health. Be attentive to give them what’s needed.
- Pay attention to your parents’ clothes. Perhaps something needs to be changed, in order to ensure their comfort and dignity.
- Take care of father’s house (helping with food and other essentials)
- Be responsible for a specific area at your father’s house, do your part.
- Serve food to the oldest first. There is a saying on the East: “As long as bread-winners live – everyone lives!”
- When serving something to the older person it’s disrespectful to give it with your one hand.
- Honor your parents with your gifts and talents, without expectation of a return or a reward.
- When visiting your father do not come with empty hands, always bring something with you. Early churches did this even when they had little to share.
- Do not distress your parents. If father’s heart is upset, it affects his prayer. (Heb 13:17) It’s hard for an upset heart to bless.
- Be the person who covers up the flaws of your father.
- Children see how older sons honor their parents and it sets an example for them.
“The father shouldn’t have a need in anything, His goal should be to lead you to heaven! Help him! Make his hands free and you will see even more blessing!” – was Yelena’s wish at the end.
The Sakhalin team then honored the pastors, their spiritual parents, with words of gratitude, testimonies and flowers!
Their teachings caused a breakthrough and brought many people to repentance for dishonoring their parents. Pastor Sunday Adelaja came up to the stage to them and thanked everyone for their ministry, for bringing a very important and necessary message. Pastor also noted that the team Sakhalin team are very special people, as evident by their attitude and behavior: by their wonderful ministry during the fast where they served everyone in need, they are also the most organized and disciplined attendees at Pastor Sunday’s home groups. After hearing Pastor Vladislav and Yelena’s message, Pastor Sunday asked them to preach at the anointing service on Sunday, August 5th. “I wrote down 20 points for myself on how to honor my elders. Even though I have already prepared a word for the anointing service I would love to hear and see their message. They are worthy. They honored us and now I want to honor them. The Lord Himself will honor them.” – said the Senior Pastor Sunday Adelaja of the Embassy of God Church.
The evening service of the Summer fast at the Embassy of God Church become crucial and destiny-shaping for many people who participated in this amazing event. It is confirmed by many testimonies of people who came to the pulpit to share.
The most important and memorable event of the evening came time when Pastor Sunday was answering questions on the theme of the Summer Fast. By explaining specifics of some issues, he made us understand that every person is a sinner and has no right to judge their neighbors. “ Everyone is a child – sons and daughters know their drawbacks in front of their father… But they are children, they should talk about the glory of their father because the father invests his life in his children. The child has to honor his father and mother!” – pastor stated.
He explained what true honor is – attention and adoration of your parent, which is already in your heart, pulsating in your thoughts, living in your actions.
Later, while answering a question, Pastor Sunday repeated a very important phrase: “God will never allow a man’s past, no matter how terrible it was, to define his future”
The theme of the evening sermon of Apostle Pastor Sunday Adelaja is: The price and consequences of disrespect.
“33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”[b]
Matthew 21:33-44
Looking at these verses from the Holy Scripture Pastor Sunday noted that the master of the vineyard was a noble person who didn’t just plant a vineyard, but he was growing it, took care of it and protected it, he was taking care of its security and safety, he was thinking about needs and comfort, protecting it from predators and animals. Using this example, the pastor drew a comparison to the relationship between people and God, because God has the same attitude towards His people that He wants them to have towards Himself.
Very often people get used to judging others as themselves, but the person of honor thinks of God first and considers all circumstances. The person of honor takes care of others before taking care of himself.
Gratitude and honor are expressed not only through words of thanks, but through sacrifice and commitment. When the vineyard master sent a reminder that it was time for harvest, the workers did not want to share the fruits. You can not make someone else’s glory your own. “To honor someone is more than verbal praise. Honor is when you give back to the person who gave you an education”, – said pastor Sunday. He asked people in the audience to consier: whose were the vineyards and whose property?… Ignoble and ungrateful people are incapable of giving back. The spirit of fatherlessness hinders them, because of the fear to loose the firstborn right, the fear of losing everything. By killing the master’s son workers were literally killing the Son of God. People with ungrateful hearts will lose the Kingdom of God.
The Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God Church asked the audience: “Which is greater- the vineyard or the Kingdom? Take good care of what has been entrusted to you and you will not loose eternity!” Without blessing and honor people perish when they reach their peak. “Disrespect costs too much! Eternity in hell is the price for disrespect!” – said Pastor Sunday.
The outcome of disrespect is an abuse of power- pride, foolishness, crossing the line of human decency. No curse can ever be activated without a foundation (reason). Therefore, in order to avoid consequences, we have to bow down before God, we have to humble ourselves to protect the Father and make ourselves safe.
Every time we show disrespect, something gets taken away from us and given to those who bear good fruit. Ones who do not wish to change and act disrespectfully are doomed to perish – such is the law of God.
The price and consequences of disrespect:
- Disrespect will take away your future and present, it will strip you of everything.
- Disrespect has too many consequences.
When God takes away your work and your glory, He doesn’t take it to heaven but He leaves it on Earth. He gives it to the one who was hurt and humiliated by you. Don’t hold anything against your neighbor, walk in humility, to walk in poverty is better than to walk in vanity and not have a future because of disrespect.
- The price of disrespect is loss. Even the children of a disonorable person and the people he helped will suffer loss.
- The price of disrespect is not fulfilling your calling.
- You will not have total peace. The life of such a person will always be filled with regrets.
Pastor asked everyone present in the auditorium to consider what we are turning our back on when we disrespect someone. He said, with conviction, that you have to pay a price and be prepared to sacrifice in order to prove and restore the honor to the one whom you have brought down or ignored.
After Pastor Sunday’s sermon, there were a few testimonies of those who had confirmation of the truth that being taught that evening. People said that the sermon convicted them a great deal and not only shed light on the magnitude of the problem itself, also showed the way it can be corrected.
Then Pastor prayed, together with the church, for people to repent and receive a deep revelation about honor and disrespect. The repentance should be confirmed with deeds not only with words.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us try to live in a way as to be worthy of our Father, let us express our honor and respect to our parents through practical steps!
Let the Lord help us in all this!
Embassy of God Church Summer Fast
August 3rd, 2012
Kyiv
Embassy of God Press-Center
Translated by Miroslava Pshichenko
Edited by Natalia Ioffe
