Can't Catch A Break | Yap Ken-ji

Hey, this is NDEO the Past of Genes Church, and this is a

podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I hope that this message encourages and inspires

you in your work with God and your journey of faith. Enjoy the message.

God bless so for all of you guys who don't know. I always

think that my life is the toughest. Yep, I have the toughest life

compat to everybody else. When I see everybody else's life, I go like,

hey, your life is very good. My true story. I look

at Justine Way, I go like, I think your life is pretty cool.

Like look at Condish, I'm like, I think your life is pretty

cool, better than my life. So I go like, his life is

definitely better than mine. You know, I look like other people. I

go like, your life is so much better than mine. Then, so

when my friend asked me, how are you, and I go like,

well, let me tell you how tough my life is. Let me tell

you how tough because we're trying to connect, right, So in my head,

I go like, let me tell you how tough my life is.

And then and then you go and then I go like, all right,

are you ready? Let me tell you so I started my sister of cancer,

and then he stopped me, saying, bro, my sisters can your

sister cancer. My mom and my brother actually went at the hospital because they

are skidsophrenic and also they are My brother is so so my brother's secrets of

friendiche. My sister is no. My mom is psychosist. So they both

ended up in the hospital last week. I'm like, serious, amen,

sorry to hear that man. Then as a convenation, go along that shad.

Amen. My dad's a strong patient, so I have to take care

of him. He's not mobile, he's not himself anymore. Then my friend

that he shed, Oh, my dad has left me a long time ago

and then recently and then recently I reconnected with him. He didn't care about

me. I'm like, oh, okay, another thing that way. I

saying, oh, you know all this while all the money that I've earned

I cannot use for myself. I have to use for my family. So

that's pretty sad. Then he's like, oh, yeah, me as well,

me as well. So I've like my sister who came and dropped two

children with me about ten years ago and disappeared for ten years. So I've

been raising this two children for all the previous ten years of my life.

I look at him, like, are you in La? You're in LA?

Your life is tough for them mine, You're in You're in and home.

I told my wife this story. Then my wife go like, you

know, Kenji, You're not the only one that goes through a tough life

here, you know. And I go like, you are right, you

are right. And I start to realize that although everybody here is all smiling

and whatnot, everybody has their stuff. Everybody has their tough life. Everybody

goes through some things. Although here you might be happy, but maybe at

home, I don't know. Maybe you never tell anybody any of these things.

But God knows a man, and I believe that today God wants to

minister to that your tough life, your tough stuff, and I believe I

believe that everybody will you know, be minister too in this sense. So

I title this message today can't catch a break. Yeah. I feel like

I can't catch a break. I think that in our life sometimes a lot

of things happen over and over again. Especially for myself, I experienced it

over and over again, and you just can't really catch a break. It's

like good things happen. Finally you can brief and go like, oh,

everything is fine now, and then the next minute something happens and go like

oh, man, for example, yeah today it's a good day. I

can to church. Oh okay. So this is a great example after all

these things that actually happened. I actually went to travel last year, and

then we were sledding. So I was sledding somewhere and then then I got

a phone call from my mom saying my sister went to the hospital because she

has walked in her lungs. So I couldn't even get one month worth of

just chill. And then something happens again, and then I come back,

and then you find out that she has cancer, and then did so and

so on forth, and for those who have known me for many years,

things just keep happening in my family. This is an exact quote from someone

within the congregation who, as she said, hey, can she I feel

that you just can't catch your break. Man, just thinks she's happening to

you. And yes, so I feel you as well. I understand how

you guys are going through. So what brings what minister to me in this

season? This year? That I've learned is from the Book of Genesis,

and we're going to study a bit about the story of Joseph Genesis chapter thirty

seven. We're going to read a little bit about the story of Joseph,

and let's learn about his life a little bit, all right, Yeah,

before that, so before we're going to read this scripture, I'm not going

to share the whole thing, because if I, you know, read the

whole Passions of Titus, I think you guys probably go home ready by then.

But we're going to take out a little bit different parts of it by

encourage everybody to go back to you just reach the whole story, and I

will draw certain parts of the scripture for us to learn about it. So

in summary, for those of you who haven't heard the story of Joseph before,

Joseph was part of this is actually this person in the Bible. He

was part of a big family. He had a lot of siblings, He

has a lot of brothers and sisters. And what he was his dad's favorite,

and then his brother didn't like him. What happened after that was that

he was sold into slavery by his brothers. And then he thought everything was

I thought that was like the worst part for him. And what happened after

that was that he got thrown into prison because he was accused of rape,

and then he was there for like a long time. So all these things

happened in his life, and then eventually he got sort of like give him

a opportunity. He saved the whole Egypt, and then so on so off,

and then he got to renite in his family and everything. So all

this whole process took the teen years he was in jail from slavery to jail

for him to become prime minister. So let's see what we can observe from

this scripture, Okay. So Genesis, chapter thirty seven, verse six to

seven. He says he said to them, listen to this dream I had.

Verse seven. We were binding sheafs of grain out of out in the

field, when suddenly my chief rose and stood up right while your chief gathered

around mind and bowed down to it. This is when Joseph was really young.

He shed this story, he shed this vision he had to his brothers.

So what I caught from this is that we actually have an ideal life.

But he actually didn't turn out that way, right. I mean,

when we were younger. So at a very young age, Joseph has his

vision, you know, like from God, who everybody's gonna bow down to

you. That's great. So I'm sure he's gonna imagine, right that has

he gone with life. Everything's gonna be spine like. For example, he's

gonna think he's gonna go university. He's gonna have this great job. He's

gonna slowly climb the ranks and they become this like the prime minister of the

land, and then everybody's gonna bow down to him. He has this great

idea in his head. That's why he shares it like so confidently. When

my family was going through tough time when I was young, this is what

I believe that time. We have no money, right, so we live

with out electricity, you know, we don't have enough food, all that

sad stuff. I used to believe that one day I'll become very rich,

very rich. Let me tell you why. It's because of the story of

Joseph. I believe that the tough for your life is like yourself, you

went to gym and everything the richer you're becoming the future. Because anyway,

Joseph grow up, you go very rich, right, So I used to

believe that. I'm like, oh man, thank you Jesus for this tough

life. Eventually, when I grew up, I'm gonna be the richest man

in Malaysia. I'm gonna like pay for others that I'm gonna pay for everybody.

And then eventually I'm gonna buy ten houses and gonna stay in every one

of them every day. That's what I'm gonna do. That was when I

was younger. I grow a little bit older, reality hit me and I'm

like, maybe I won't be the richest man in Malaysia, Okay, but

maybe when everybody grows older, older, when they're working, we'll be fine

because everybody gets to take care of themselves. And then when I was at

their age, when I'm the youngest in the family and I started working,

oh man, it's still the same. Until today, it's still the same.

What I have in my mind really didn't turn out that way. I

don't know how many you guys relate to this. When you were younger,

you dream about something and today it's just something entirely different, and some of

it might frustrate you, because I know you should frustrate me that time maybe

for some of you, I mean for the youth as well. When you

were younger, you kind of dream that you want to go to disney Land

together, I know I did with your parents. You want to go to

Disneyland. But then you go back home minute you realize your parents are fighting

every day, and then you and there's some of you who are working,

you kind of dream about that income like, yeah, you know, I'm

going to be promoted and everything. But in reality is that for some reason

everybody else is getting promoted but not you. Maybe you just go into a

relationship not long ago you have this dream about, you know, you and

your girlfriend having this great thing going on, like yeah, you and your

boyfriend and girlfriend having this great thing going on. But it didn't turn out

that way. So we all have our own ideals, but it didn't turn

out that. That's why you're feeling this way. So the second thing I'm

going to draw out from the story of Joseph is that these things actually were

out of his control. Genesis, chapter thirty nine. It says that so

in this story, he was working in the house as a slave, and

then his master's wife came on to him, tried to sleep with him,

but then he actually said no, and then something's happened. So Genesis thirty

nine, verse ten to eleven, it says, and though she spoke to

Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bit with her and or

even be with her. Verse eleven. One day he went to the house

to attend to his duties, so he was just minding his own business.

He didn't go looking for trouble, right, and none of the household servant

was inside. She caught him by the cloak and said, come to bit

with me, And he left his cloak in the hands and ran off his

house. Then we move on to verse nineteen. When his master heard the

story, his wife told him, say, this is how your slave treated

me. He burned with anger. Verse twenty. Joseph's master took him and

put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. He

was trainin into prison, not because he did something bad, not because of

anything. It was just out of his control. People accused him and he

and he couldn't do anything about it. So he started with his brothers,

you know, who sold him into slavery. He had no control over that,

And then he was caught and then he was sold into this household no

control again, he didn't have his own rights, and then he were trying

to jail no control again. For me personally, I don't know how many

of your feel this, but when I read this, it kind of heats

it different for me because I've always believed that I lived the consequences of other

people's choices growing up. Maybe for you is your parent, maybe for you

is your siblings and stuff. But for me, I didn't ask for any

of this up. I didn't really ask for this hot life. I just

wanted a very normal life. I wanted to go to school. I wanted

to have a normal paying job. It's because of all these things that happened

to me that, like, oh, you know that that changed me.

I always believe I didn't ask for any of this. But my father at

the time, he made a bad business decision. So we were actually pretty

okay when I was young, like a baby or something. And then he

made a bad business decision and then he lost the house, he lost everything.

We were chased by loan sharks. We were, you know, constantly

running from gangsters. I had to pick up phone calls and and tell and

tell them my family's not at home. I have gangsters coming to my house.

My family's pictures were all around town. And then because of that decision,

I have to go through all that. Even after today my mom doesn't

have a house to live in and I have to provide for that, and

it's really heavy. I never asked for any of this, and I think

even got heavier. So like Joseph, he was just in a house,

the clean stuff, right, and then go to prison and I go like,

oh man, I feel Joseph as well, because what happened was that

at first it was just money. At first, it was just money.

I'm like, okay, you know what, even though I have to eat

bread every day, I'm okay, I'll just I'll just pay for what I

can. At first, in my family, it was just money. But

then my dad had a stroke. When he had a stroke, he fell

and he's not himself anymore. And then suddenly I'm like, okay, now

I have to take out of him. But never mind, it's okay.

The family's going to go around it. And then the next second, my

brother had to go to do missions in Japan. Not his fault. God

has called him great. And then suddenly my sister has rheumatat after this,

so she cannot live my dad anymore, So how can Jilaw. So what

Kenji does is that he has to work for money at the same time,

he has to be there physically to carry his dad, to wash his pope,

to show him and everything as well. I never asked for any of

this, but all I know is that I feel Joseph, and he says

that when the Bible kind of shows that he was out of his control.

So for you guys, our things in your life out of control as well,

You guys feel what I'm talking about, like you know, your parents

fighting every day, your friends betraying you, your boss, favoring other people.

For Joseph especially, these things was really out of his control. And

here the next observation that I have, this one was the one that I

go like, man, for Joseph, it happened over and over again.

Really just can't catch a break, right. Oh, it's a really long

one. So all the way till all the way till even after he even

after he saw redeem Egypt, I mean safe Egypt, you know, bring

everybody in, he still have to go to stuff at That's what's the next

scripture phone there. Yes, so this is after. This is after he

settled everything. He thought his life haester than peace. And then that's where

his brothers came to visit him. His brother came to Egypt not to visit

him, but to buy grain. And then he met his brothers after so

many years, so Verst ninety says, then he remembers his dream about them

and say to them, you are spies. You have come to see where

all is, where our land is unprotected. He had to deal with that

kind of emotional trauma. He had to deal with that kind of emotions.

He have to like, oh man, after all these years, I thought

I was okay, and then he came back again again and again. So

for me, I remember that one day I came home. I was working

at the time. I was working public bank, really boring job. But

you know he'll take home bound. So what happened? What happens I came

home I realized. I remember, I said to myself. When I saw

my family eating dinner, I go like, finally, finally, I think

we're okay. Because my dad, my mom, my sister, and my

brother who were sitting out there eating dinner. Everybody had their own thing going

on, and I go like, I think we're okay. And two weeks

after that that's where my dad fell and everything changed. These things of this

world will not sustain us, It wouldn't give us peace. But as we

set our eyes on Jesus, he brings us through all the storms in life,

any hardships that we have to face. We just need to look to

God to encourage us, to strengthen us and so that we can carry on.

This understanding helps me to get up every morning and continue on with life.

And honestly, it also helped me to actually have faith to actually marry

my wife because I told her that time, I said, I don't know

you sure you want to marry into this situation that she's like yeah, I'm

like I don't think you're sure. And if I she said yes, I'm

like, okay, cool. Thank God she said yes, you should ran

away, everybody said, Because for me, this is why I learn with

life in Christ, there's so much for to live. There's so much to

live for today, Rather than to dream about a break through that we don't

know when it's going to happen, Amen for real sure? For so,

I just want to end with this scripture, so I thought it's pretty cool.

So in Habakuk chapter the Tree, verse seventeen to nineteen, so I'm

going to read it. I says, though the cherry trees don't blossom,

and the strawberries don't ripen, Though the apples are worm eaten, and the

wheat feels stunted, though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty,

I am singing joyful praise to God. I am turning cart wheels of

joy to my God, my savior God, counting on God's rule to prevail.

I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I

feel like I'm king of the mountain. Tell your neighbor, I feel like

I'm king of the mountain. He Praise God. We trusting God's sovereignty,

true all our hardships enough to do the next best thing. And while we

constantly set our eyes on Jesus, who will never fail forsake us. We

just want to thank God that God is always near and always there for us,

because He really loves us. Amen. Thanks for listening to this message.

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