The Keys to an Incredible Journey with God

Rev Ronald Ooi

I feel like a Caleb after the wilderness. Caleb said God had given him strength like it was 40 years ago. Joshua and Caleb were men of a different spirit. They just took the hands of the next generation because the first generation never made it to the promise land. He held their hands and said they are going to make it by serving God wholeheartedly. Serve the Lord with all your heart, not half your heart. Give it your all, 100% dedicated to the Lord. Not 50% but 100%.

We are going to pray for the youth this morning. Last week we prayed for the children's church and my wife asked whether can we take them home or not. They're so adorable. She's actually with them this morning. If there's anyone who can take her away from me are the children. She's there to just encourage and walk with them even as they're doing a great job.

The youth are the now generation and we just want to walk with them. Today, God is here and not just the future and he wants to walk with us like he did with Abraham and we want to walk with these youth. We are the uncles and aunties and big brothers and sisters. Kelvin where are you? He's like a big brother to the youth. Terrence too. That they come around them and walk with them to do life together. It's not just a programme. We do life together.

This is a year that prophets are saying about advancement. They are being sensitive to the seasons and we need to be sensitive to them. They are sensitive to the mind of God and the seasons of the time.

In Malaysia we wear the same clothes all year but in Melbourne there are seasons and when we are there, we need to wear the right things for the right weather and we do the right things for the right weather. You plant and pluck the right things for the right season. Same with you, life is full of seasons and he works in our seasons. The same with the church. Sometimes we move in the same old way when the times and the seasons have changed.

I was here 35 years ago but Penang have changed. I don't know if I can drive now like before. I have to change if I were to survive the traffic here. All the criss-crossing, it's scary. When I look at TOP, I am amazed at how far it's come.

I remember when I preached during pastor Eng Lian's time and you have come a long way and God is still walking with you.

This morning I want to talk to you about the keys to an incredible journey with God. If you find my key to my car you will find my car in the basement and in my car you'll have my access card to my house. From my car keys you get to my house key. And into my house! And with the third key you can open my fridge door.  One key opens the door to another.

That's the secret of God when you have the key. The key to the first door will unlock other doors. That's the excitement we have in knowing God. The key to knowing God is a very powerful key. Jesus said I'm the way, the truth and the life. He gives us the key to reconnect with the father. There is life and there is life with God. It's different. Life really starts when we are reconnected to our maker.

God did not reconnect us to come to church. It's wonderful but it's more than that. It's about walking with God. We can come to God every day of our life. That God is open and ready once you find that key.

Life, whatever the season may be, life is primarily a journey, an incredible journey with God. When God made Adam, he walked in the cool of the evening in the garden. And God called out to Adam, where are you? God thinks of us all the time. Before we were anything, before we were formed in the womb, God loved us. He thought of us. Think about that for a moment.

When I looked back and when my son left his room I asked what happened? I had him for 19 years. When they reach 12, 13, they say mummy don't hold my hands anymore, I want to be with my friends. We have them until their youth. We were parents and in Hebrew it's horim הורים, a trainer. Our role is to train them in the ways of God.

I hope my wife and I can run a family seminar, sometime this year. We love to do that. When Abraham was asked to leave his country, his relative, everything he has built in the land of Ur, what did he do? When he gave his plan to Abraham he was thinking of you and he was thinking of me. He was already thinking of how Jesus will come. God was using that nation to bring the Messiah to us. We now who have faith in Christ as the children of Abraham and we have that inheritance as children of Abraham. That is another key.

I would like to talk a little about my children and grandchildren. When I close my eyes I see the faces of my grandchildren. I'm thinking of them all the time. God said something to me. Just as you think of your children and grandchildren, I think of my children all the time too. Before we were anything he loved us. He created us and he knows exactly what he was doing. We love because he first loved us. We were made to be loved and to loved. We are human beings first and not human doing.

He not only thinks of us but he wants to save us and bring us into eternity. He wants to be with us forever and ever and ever. That is why he created us, not just to think of us but that he may be with us for eternity. That's our God. I'm starting to understand him more. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. God wants me to be with him.

The key to an incredible journey with God. I want to share one key with you.

Hebrews 11:8

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

We only have one life on earth to discover all the keys that will open the doors of blessings and wisdom and understanding of who God is.

I call this the "yes" key. I was asking my wife is it a better term than obey? Obey sounds very heavy and legalistic. When we learn to say yes out of love towards God, our response to him is yes God, whatever you want, I'll say yes Lord. I call it the yes key. The yes key will unlock the door to deeper revelation. Look at Abraham. I mean he was already a rich man in the land of Ur, he's got money, he's cattle, he's got business, he was one that didn’t know the one true and living God yet.

And in the background of chapter 12, during the time of the Tower of babel, there was confusion and chaos. The people wanted to build a tower and city. To build a name for themselves. God looked down and came down and he scattered them because they were building what I call the Tower of Babel out of pride and ambition, than to honour God.

The acronym of the Tower Of Babel is TOB. The were building a TOB out of their own ambition. The wise man builds his house, his ministry, his family, the wise man who builds anything builds it on the rock. When the storm comes it will stand. But the foolish man builds it on the sand. Then when the rain comes it will not last. It will be demolished, it will be destroyed.

It's like the person who hears the word, Jesus said,  and he does it. That's the wise man. The man that hears it but does not do it, is building on weak foundation. We want to be the wise men and the wise women. So I pray all of you will build it on the rock and not sand because it will not stand against the storms. We want to be wise men and women when we build it on strong foundation.

Let's see what Abraham build in the times when men were building TOB. If Abraham had said no he would have missed it but he used the yes key and he walk and obeyed God. He decided to leave the sandy ground and he received revelation after revelation from God. He became even richer but he left all that to be richer in God. Just like many years ago I left my own ambition to be rich in God.

Where are you going to take all your riches? Our riches is how much more we know God. Heaven may be my destination but God is my destiny.

Abraham thought he could help God and Hagar came into the picture and a son of the flesh came. You begin by faith and walk by faith and you will end up by faith. Not by flesh halfway through.

The project was the nation of Israel but the process was more important than the end project. The process was when he reach 99 years old, he will show he is El Shaddai,  God almighty. God was trying to show Abraham that which is impossible became possible. He just told Abraham to do the walking and God will do the making. You walk with me then comes the work.

You want to know God, bring that yes key with you. Yes Lord I will do it. From that yes, revelation after revelation will come to you. Abraham built an altar to meet with God. A tent is something that move from place to place and from that tent came the tabernacle. God wants a church that is built on revelation and it will become stronger and stronger and stronger. Our tabernacle and your tabernacle is in our heart where God's presence dwell.

Learnt to say yes to God.

It is also the key to God's presence in your life. I have reduced my television from ten to one or to zero now. Occasionally we sit down to watch a nice movie or I take my grandchildren for a nice cartoon. One of the reason I don't do that is halfway they throw in an advertisement. My wife is an I person. They're the easiest person to sell to.  They are curious, oh, what is this. These advertisements sell clothes, and perfumes. It's something you don't really need but they make you want it. Just like in the garden of Eden. The modern day malls are all garden of Edens. They make you want it. I would rather the Holy Spirit create the desire in me to want more and more of him. That all of us will have the desire for God and his plans.

Moses initially when he was young he had that desire at first and wanted to save the people of Israel. He wanted to give God a helping hand but that's not the way God works. He had to run away in the wilderness and he lost all that desire. There was probably no more motivation or vision and that was for 40 years of his life. He was probably disappointed with himself and everything that was around him. Then at 80 God comes into the picture at the burning bush and God spoke to him from the burning bush that was not burning. And at 80 years old he said he's old and he cannot speak anymore and all this resistance. When the resistance is bigger than the desire, nothing will change, life will go on as it is. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be, there is no power shift at all. But at 80 years old God stirred this man's heart. He needed to have that desire. He failed in his first time but God is a God of second chances.

And Moses said who am I? Who do I tell Pharaoh  who sent me, I'm nothing. And that's when God said when you're down to nothing and empty, God does something. My wife sometimes said when you are full of yourself how can the Holy Spirit fill you. And God said I Am send you. Moses, it does not matter who you are but more Important is who I Am, God is saying. All that resistance is gone. No wonder when God build that tent, it's a TOP and not TOB. TOB is built by ambition but TOP is built by revelation.

And finally, the key is to bless others. God said to Abraham, you will be a blessing. You do the walking and I will do the blessing. You do the walking and I will do the showing. First things first. Put God first and when it all happens, we cannot say we did it. The younger ones may not know this song. Famous Frank Sinatra's song "I did it my way". Those 50 and above will know this. And look where the world has gone. But we do it God's way, amen?

Adam disobeyed, and he brought destruction. He said no and it brought destruction. Jesus said yes, and he brought life. He obeyed the father, came down, took the form of a man and He has blessed the whole world including your life and my life. Walk with him.

Say yes to God. He love us so much how can we say no to God. He said yes to the father how can we say no to him. And because he said yes to us, yes to the father, and when you say yes, you have found the key and you are on an incredible journey with God.