KyivPost: Most Influential Expats: Sunday Adelaja

Thursday, October 7, 2010, at 23:11 | Kyiv Post

Sunday Adelaja, 43
#16 Most Influential

Pastor Sunday Adelaja, the exuberant Nigerian who founded and heads the evangelical Embassy of God in Kyiv, has a knack for drawing a crowd -- and controversy.

He launched his religious career shortly after arriving in Ukraine in 1993 and his church now boasts 2.5 million members, including 100,000 weekly churchgoers.


UNIAN

And despite the negative reaction to him by Ukraine’s powerful Orthodox clergy, Adelaja's colorful preaching has earned him endorsements from the likes of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, according to the church’s website.

He has also been implicated, however, in financial scams.

“Everyone has dropped in at least once. But the famous ones don’t want anyone to know about it, because I am supposedly controversial,” the pastor told the Kyiv Post.

Leonid Chernovetsky, Kyiv’s eccentric and controversial mayor, has never been shy about his affiliation with the church, gaining spiritually and politically. The church runs a soup kitchen in Kyiv and a rehabilitation center for alcoholics and drug addicts, two charities that worked to Chernovetsky's advantage at election time.

The pastor, married with three children, offers something to everyone.

“My major contribution has been to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. When people see me, they say: I don’t want to go to his church, but maybe I should reconnect with Orthodoxy.”

Reinvigorating religious fervor after 70 years of official atheism by spreading the word in a simple manner is what Adelaja considers to be his greatest achievement.

The result has been a worldwide ministry that Adelaja says extends to embassy churches in the U.S., Europe and former Soviet Union, a radio and television audience of eight million in Ukraine, plus over 80 books written and published by the pastor and translated into several different languages.

Link to list of citizenship of Ukraine's top foreigners (notice there is one Nigerian): http://www.kyivpost.com/data/images/tabl.jpg

Link to list of most influential expats in Ukraine (notice number 16): http://www.kyivpost.com//data/images/03%281%29.jpg

Link to the article: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/85456/
Link to the main article: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/85494/

03.10.2010

Pastor Sunday Adelaja: PRAISE AND WORSHIP

(theses of the anointing service for October)

October in our church is dedicated to praise and worship. Genesis 49:8-10 says:

Judah, may your brothers praise you. May your hand be in the neck of your enemies. May your father’s sons bow before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp. My son, you have gone up from the prey. He stooped, he crouched like a lion; and like a lioness, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And the obedience of the peoples to him.

This passage of the Bible reveals to us important things about praise and worship. Actually, Judah means “praise”. This prophecy is not only about Judah as a man or a people but also about the importance of praise in the life of every believer.

Let us study this Scripture in detail to understand the importance of praise and worship better:

“Judah, may your brothers praise you”
This verse shows us that God exalts praise above all other Christian qualities we must possess to reference him. We therefore must highly exalt praise and honor to God above all and give GOD the glory every day of our lives as believers.

“May your hand be in the neck of your enemies”
These words confirm that praise is a weapon of victory.

“May your father’s sons bow before you”
When you praise God, you receive honor from others. If you live a life of praise and worship to GOD, He will make people honor you.

“Judah is a lion’s whelp. My son, you have gone up from the prey”
Judah always has the power of youth. Praise will always give a worshiper the power of youth. When you praise God, you don’t grow old, your spirit is alive and you rejoice in God’s glory. It implies that no matter how you feel, if you find strength to praise and worship God, you will always receive results and you’ll never be the prey.

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet”
Praise brings honor, respect, authority and power. When you praise God above all in your life, God surely stands for you to honor you. Here is God’s principle: if we honor Him, He honors us. God will never be indebted to us, therefore He will give us honor before people.

These points confirm that man’s limitations depend on who he praises and worships. If I serve and worship a man, my honor and glory will not be higher than what a man can give because I do not see myself higher than that man. However, if I serve and worship God, then the glory and honor I receive are not limited to the human realm. In this case, it’s only the Lord Almighty Himself that would define the limits of glory He showers on me and honor I receive. There is this principle in life that you are a slave to whomever you serve. The other way round: your limitations, abilities, and glory are defined by who you represent. If you worship God and give yourself completely to Him (if God is what you live for), He will surely enlarge your coast. A confirmation to that we can find in this prophecy to Judah which the Lord gave through Jacob.

Let us see why praise and worship are so important and what they give us.

In the Gospel from Luke 17:11-19 we see an example of the result of thanksgiving. This is the story about the healing of ten lepers who met Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. Jesus healed them in a supernatural way and sent them to priests to testify about the miracle. However, only one of them returned to give thanks to the Lord:

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and glorified God with a loud voice. And he fell down on his face at His feet, thanking Him. And he was a Samaritan. And answering, Jesus said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were none found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And He said to him, Rise and go; your faith has cured you. (Luke 17:15-19)

Here we can see that this one man was a very grateful man, because even before he came back to Jesus, he glorified and thanked God with a loud voice and then he bowed down before the Redeemer.

This example is very important - the grateful man was a Samaritan, i.e. a member of a different tribe; nonetheless, thanks to his humility a miracle came to his life. It is only when you are sincere and humble that you would be able to praise and worship God, therefore If you want the Lord to accept your praise and worship, you will need to humble yourself before Him. This attitude brought miracle to the life of the leper. Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has cured you”. Nine people received only healing, but this man received both healing and salvation. Only a person that is truly humble can praise and worship the Lord. Even if you do not have any problem, still praise and thanksgiving will bring you blessings.

Now, let us see what advantages of praise and worship of God to us:

1. Through praise we express our gratitude to God
We always have something to thank God for: for salvation and everything that He has done and is doing for us. It is right to thank God for all these.

2. Praises bring blessings and sweetness into our life

Psalm 147:1 advices each of us: Praise Jehovah; for it is good to sing praises to our God; for praise is delightful and becoming.

3. Praise takes you out of depression and conquers demonic oppression

1 Samuel 16:23: And it happened when the spirit from God was on Saul, that David took a harp and played with his hand. And there was relief for Saul, and it was well with him, and the evil spirit departed from him.

4. Praise brings breakthrough

Matthew 1:3: And Judah fathered Pharez

If Judah is praise, and Pharez is breakthrough, then praise always gives birth to breakthrough. That is why you should dedicate yourself to praising God, after all this is what brings breakthrough to the lives of those who praise God.

5. Praise opens any (locked) door

Acts 16:25-26: And toward midnight Paul and Silas prayed and praised God in a hymn. And the prisoners listened to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and all the bonds were loosened.

6. Praise is stronger than prayer

Jonah 2:8-10: They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land

7. Praise brings defeat to your enemies

2 Chronicles 20:22: And when they began to sing and to praise, Jehovah set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, who had come against Judah. And they were beaten

So, having looked through these points, you see how important it is not to neglect such vital blessings as praise and worship to God. Living with an ungrateful heart will cost you much more that a life full of gratitude to God. I encourage you, my dear brothers and sisters, to live in praise, worship and thanksgiving to God at all times, especially nowadays when you can easily find good Christian praise and worship music. I also recommend you to spend much time in praise and thanksgiving while you are in your personal prayer retreats. For it is through this that heaven is opened and after that it will be easier for you to present your needs at the throne of grace.

May the Lord Bless you and your family!