Venturing Out of Your Comfort Zone – Pastor Keith Tay at City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur

“Father I just want to thank you for this wonderful day. Lord, you have helped us to journey with you all this while. Father I pray for us to have strength to pursue what is ahead of us. Bring us from strength to strength, faith to faith, and glory to glory. May you continue to accomplish what your Word has desired to do in Jesus name, Amen!” shared Pastor Keith Tay as he led City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur (CHCKL) in prayer, on the 26^th of September 2015.

“One of the things we talk about in the Bible is the Promised Land. We know that it is the Kingdom Land and it is so significant because Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness and Joshua became the leader who led them into the promised land. Growing up I always thought that the promised land was the promise that God gave to the children of Israel when they were suffering in Egypt but as I was studying the Word of God again, I realized the promised land was promised to Abraham, instead of the children of Israel,” Keith shared. Abraham was the one who received the promise, that his descendants would one day inherit and will dwell in the promised land.

The Lord had said to Abram (Abraham), “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-4)

So Abraham, his wife Sarah and his nephew journeyed into the unknown. “God wants to bless you but you must first venture out. We need to understand that God’s blessings are not handed over just like money does not grow on trees. It requires us to pursue and obey,” shared Keith.

The Call

Many people who are serving full time often get asked, “How do you know that you are called by God?” or “How do you discover what God has called you to do?” “The call, this is where faith makes sense. In order for us to obey the call, we firstly need to have faith,” he said.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Pastor Keith Tay citing the Bible scriptures

“It is about the certainty and the assurance that faith is something that you can hold on to. In order to have faith, let us first settle the most important question. ‘What do you hope for?’, and ‘What do you want to see?’” asked Keith. Often times, when people are unable to know what we hope for or what we want to see, then faith seems to be useless, because everything seems to be okay in our lives. To discover your call, figure out what you want. In the case of Abraham, he wanted to be a father. “Faith makes sense when you have something to hope for,” he shared. But these days, there are so many distractions and there are so many things for a person to want. To know your calling, you need to focus and know what you really hope for or hope to see.

The calling of God is often the call to the unknown and it requires us to have hope on what we know. Abraham had to leave where he was, though his place of birth, which is The Ur of Chaldeans was an important city that thrived by two rivers. It was a place where the people worshipped many Gods. He left because he wanted to serve the one and only God. To find our your calling you need to ask yourself, “How do I become a part of establishing the Kingdom of God in this life?” or “God, how would you make me a testimony?”

The Covenant

“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

The above are the four promises God made to Abraham. “After being a Christian for a while, we begin to immerse ourselves in chasing the blessings of God. We are so much into wanting God to answer our prayers to what we think will be good, but I want you to know that the covenant is not just about the promises, the covenant is about the relationship,” shared Keith.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying,”Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. (Hebrews 6:13-15)

A covenant is like a bond; a life-long relationship. Abraham is known as the father of faith because when everyone was worshiping other gods, he rejected worldliness and pursued a relationship with God. God and Abraham shared a very close relationship with each other. “The promises of God does not exempt us from struggles and fears, but in our struggles, we get to remember our covenantal relationship with God,” said Keith. Abraham trusted not in his circumstances; he trusted in God, knowing that God will not fail him.

“Sometimes we seek for the confirmation of men so much that we no longer have that connection with God,” he shared. We need to lead a spirit-led life.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:3)

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

The Journey

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. (Genesis 12:4)

“As he set out on his journey, Abraham is not promised that his life will be better in Canaan. Simultaneously, when God calls you out to a place, you can almost be certain that it is not going to be easy. We must have an assurance in God that through all the tough times, God will be with us,” Keith shared.

“Calls from God are not always what we want to hear because they usually mean disruption, dislocation and leaving your comfort zone. It simply means change,” he said. If God has called you, and you are resisting, then the thing you are resisting is change. Abraham failed miserably at times during the journey but through the whole journey, he grew closer and closer with God! Even if you think you have failed God miserably, God wants you to know that He still wants you to follow him.

When Abraham received God’s calling, he received God’s promise, and he also had to go through certain things in life. Abraham was promised that the whole world will be blessed through him. Just like Abraham, God’s desire is that you have a personal relationship with Him and know Him in such a way that you want to obey Him. And through your faithful obedience, you will be a blessing. “The journeys of faith are the only ways we can move into the future that God has for us. The fate of our Christian life is that we cannot be too safe, we cannot afford not taking risks. Stepping out is a call for everybody, not just for a group of people,” said Keith. You are called to be the salt and light, only if you are willing to venture out!