22nd Oct 2012. By Natasha Kim, CM –
Today I visited City Harvest Kuala Lumpur again for the second time, this time however I managed to meet more people, without any doubt upbeat and friendly. For those who do not know by now or have not read my previous article on City Harvest KL, the main goers of this Church are youths which totals to thousands on most weeks. They have services on both Saturday and Sunday but to experience the large crowd of people flocking for worship, one must be there on a Sunday morning where their large theater is entirely full of young people.
City Harvest Kuala Lumpur branched out from the main City Harvest in Singapore, where they adopted the name but most of everything else is separate such as the in-house facilities they have namely, their bookstore/coffee place, Futsal court, café, and saloon. All these facilities are inspired by Reverend Kevin Loo who does a lot of creative thinking as well as writing and painting for the Church. It has a very modern and unique atmosphere that one can only experience by being there.
Right after praise and worship was done for today’s service, Pastor Keith Tay began to preach and he preached about Identity and Rhythm. The youths started taking their seats after all the excitement from praise in order to get focused into his sermon. It would be their spiritual food and thought for the day. As he began to preach, he started talking about how we enter this life fully dependent on our parents to take care of us, as we grow gradually we instead try to be more independent of others to do what we think is right by our own initiative. He says, “Only in our mature adult life do we learn that the key to happiness is neither of the two extremes, but a sense of inter-dependencies in which we know that we have a contribution to make for others. We need to learn co-operatively rather than in constant competition. We then need to rejoice in our abilities and at the same time acknowledge our competition and trust others to help fulfill them. It is the interdependence that helps us go through life.”
Everyone has a season in life and we go through different stages in life. All of us need to know what season that we are in order to get the most out of it. In this case, when one lives in an expired season, he lives in the past, and when someone lives ahead of their season they would then live in restlessness. Only when we live in the season that God has given to you, there is an attitude of gratitude. Everything is a matter of timing and with this according to the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3 says, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven”. There is a season in our lives that we prepare and on the other hand, there is a season in our lives that we plant. After that, there is a season that we harvest.
Preparation is not about what you do but about what you want and who you are in life. For example he says, “If my four year old daughter wants a truckload of candies and I gave it to her without her having the maturity to handle it and allowed her to live in that truck for days. She would be very sick or it would destroy her.” In addition to that, he says, “A lot of times when we want something it isn’t wrong but it is that preparation stage that allows God to bring that thing to us.”
The motivation about finishing well in life is about having the right identity. People that struggle with low self esteem may talk down about others to feel good about themselves while a secure and confident person always brings out the best in others just like how Jesus Christ wanted to bring out the best in others. If you live by the opinion of others, you will live a very miserable life.
At the same time, God has also set a rhythm in life for example the four seasons and of course the rhythm of our heartbeat. Rhythm is not routine but progress. In this case, we need to find our rhythm in God and that will be able to increase our momentum. Pastor Keith then says, “You need to get the rhythm to pray. Some people get into the rhythm of running because of that, they are able to gradually run much further. One thing that the devil loves is to break your rhythm. He is good at irritating you.” All of us need to build a strong identity and rhythm, if we lose that rhythm we will lose that passion and if we live in routine, it will not be rewarding. He says, “For now we need to pause and to rest and to plan. You have got to slow down and renew your passion. Doing something right with the wrong rhythm will eventually make you tired and want to give up.” We learn that we must pick it back up, this rhythm and break the routine in our lives. Amen!
To find out more about City Harvest KL or to listen to Pastor Keith Tay’s full sermon please visit http://chc.org.my/
