 |
| CAC President, Pastor Samuel O. Oladele |
By Boluwatife Oparinde
The President of Christ Apostolic Church Nigeria and Overseas, Pastor Samuel O. Oladele has expressed thought-provoking lessons about the labours of past heroes at different spheres of life which are now growing fruits that the present generation enjoys.
The cleric who stated that the benefits and privileges everyone enjoy today is a proof of owing something to our forebearers who had laboured before now, also declared that, "nobody becomes anything on his or her own. Somebody made you, and you have to acknowledge them."
Pastor Oladele gave this assertion at the 50th Anniversary and Thanksgiving Service of Christ Apostolic Church Victory District Headquarters, The Polytechnic Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday, 4th September, 2023.
Speaking on the theme of the Golden Jubilee celebration "Jacob's Well" from John 4:6, the President said, "it is good to be reminded that all the privileges we own and enjoy today became ours not because we worked for it or by our efforts but we inherited them."
Speaking on how he has an official car bought by the church, an accomodation provided by the church and his travels abroad sponsored by the church, the clergyman said, "all of us, one way or the other, are like the children of Israel who enjoyed from wells they did not dig, enjoyed plants other people laboured."
The President, explaining how the founding fathers of the Christ Apostolic Church did not enjoy the privileges enjoyed today but whose labours are the fruits enjoyed by the current generations, said "we owe something to our forebearers who had laboured before now. We all reap where we did not sow. Except we live by this conviction and realization, we will misbehave. Jesus said others have laboured, you only go there to reap. He said I sent you there to reap where others have laboured."
"Let me throw this challenge at you, when you are gone from here, when you are no longer in the scene, how many people would be able to say of you that they are where they are because of you? Jesus said He had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, acknowledging the ones who had come before Him."
Expositing the relevance and significance of the well of Jacob in John 4:6, the clergyman noted that the well had been there 1,700 years before Christ came, and it had been fulfilling its purpose of existence which primarily is providing water for household needs, relating that many individuals do not live for the purpose of their existence.
He challenged the congregation to meet the needs of people, wipe people's tears, feed the hungry, etc without waiting for God to do what they could do.
According to him, "there are some people in the church and in the society that you can meet their needs. Jacob built that well and it's lasting for over three thousand years today. I ask myself the question, will my work last? Baba Babalola went to be with the Lord 64 years ago, yet his work speaketh. What will people remember me for? Will my work for God last?"
Speaking on the personality of Jacob who built the well, the CAC President said Jacob built a ninty feet well on a rocky terrain in days when there were modern equipments that could make the work easier and faster, adding that Jacob "could have built more quickly. He could have built some shallow well."
The cleric who challenged the congregation that, "let us labour painstakingly. Let us put integrity, honesty, righteousness to the things we do for God. When it comes to church, you have to labour and work and work," also said that, "another thing about Jacob is that he built that well for the comfort of His master Jesus. It was as if he knew that one day, the Lord Jesus would come and when He comes, he would receive comfort from the well."
"And look at Jesus, who indeed went there having walked and laboured. The Bible says Jesus sat and rested on the well. The well of Jacob gave Jesus rest and comfort," Pastor Oladele said.