You Can't See Me | Yap Ken-ji

Hey there, you're listening to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray that the

word of God today will challenge, change and channel you into your God given

destiny. Now let's get started. If you have your Bible, stick it

out. Look. Chapter ten. Today's message is going to be you can't

see me, right? They say it right, Yes, you can't see

me. So I'm going to read from the ESV version. I hope it's

the same. Now. As they went on their way, Jesus entered a

village, and a woman named Martha calmed him into her house. And she

had a sister called Mary, who said at Jesus' feet, at the Lord's

feet, sorry, and said, Lord, do you not care about my

sister? That my sister has left me to surf alone? Tell her then

to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you

are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary

has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Amen.

Cool. So, however, you have read this verse before, what

can you observe from Martha's favor behavior? I hope I'll share some new revelations

that I found through this verse. What can you observe from Martha's behavior.

Okay, so when I read this verse as a kid, I think it

was the same as well. So for me, what I realized is that

as a kid in Sunday School, they always tell us like, Okay,

be a Mary, don't be a Martha, and Martha is always the bad

person in what they always look like. So then while I was prepared for

this message, then I thought about my mom. Okay, so my mother.

What happened was that one time she invited people over to a house because

she's a very good cook. So she cooked pat me and then she cooke

cock cock cock cook and then people actually came to hang out with her that

she came to say hello, anti and stuff. So they came, they

sat around the table there and my mom was just busy cooking panty and then

she cooked finished idi that she started cleaning. So every time the guests said,

hey, why do not you come and sit down with us and talk

to us, then she's like, oh, never mind, lie, I'm

going back into the kitchen to do stuff. Kind of reminds me of Martha.

Actually, if you didn't know, Jesus came all the way to her

house Jesus came all the way from don't know where to her house to actually

spend time with her, but she was all caught up into doing other things

instead. So this is the first point which I actually realized that for Martha

it was the wrong time to be busy. Amen. So it was the

wrong time for her to be busy. But my revelation that I realized from

here is that Martha wasn't a bad person. Mattha wasn't a horrible person.

Mattha wasn't like a person who doesn't believe. You know why, because if

we actually see Martha's faith journey, especially in John eleven when her brother Lazarus

died, it was Martha who actually confess to Jesus and say that, hey,

you are the resurrecting King. Let's see John chapter eleven, verse twenty

five. Jesus say to her, I am the resere direction and the life.

The one who believes, and the one who believes in me will live

even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in Me whenever die.

Do you believe this Martha's confession, Yes, Lord, she replied, I

believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God who is to come

into this world. So Martha had faith in Jesus. Martha was a person

of faith. Martha was a mature Christian. Martha was a person that already

confessed Jesus Christ is there. So when she's all busy this doing all these

things, it wasn't that she didn't have faith in Jesus. It wasn't that

she doesn't know who Jesus was. She already knew. But it was just

the wrong place. It was just the wrong time to be busy amen powerful

stuff. So this is why I realized it is like us Christians, don't

you think so? For me? I do the same thing as well,

during the sermon, during place and worship when we're all like singing, oh

yeah, Christ is our firm foundation. I'm not texting people and say hey,

are you coming to church? Where are you right now? I'm there

like thinking about other things like, oh, okay, are the chance actually

organized properly? Is this person coming? Who's gonna fetch yes sua later to

the arty station. I got to arrange for that. But I'm thinking of

all these kind of things. Am I a bad Christian? No? I

don't think so. But it was the wrong time to be busy. You

know why, because Jesus came all the way, all the way to to

meet us here, to meet us in our own lives. But what we

do we focus on doing or doing being busy. Sorry, we focus on

being busy that we forgot that we forgot that Jesus came all this way to

work to meet us. But then again, we're just busy doing our own

thing. So Martha, she had her experiences with Christ last time she went.

And you know why, I know she had faith because faith comets by

hearing, and we're hearing the world of God. The reason why she believed

that Jesus was the Missige because she heard him preach before, he heard him

declare these things before, So that whole time she was always consistent. That's

how she got her revelation. But at the one time, that one encounter

when she just came to the house to meet her, she was being busy.

So here, so here's my revelation that caught. Can we not be

busy? Can we not be too busy for God? Even though it's like

the good things, even though it's things that it's actually permissible. Can we

not be busy? And that's actually the second point, she's distracted with good

things. She didn't do anything wrong. If she did anything wrong, like

you know, she was like no, no, no, slapping a dog,

yeah, then Jesus would have Then Jesus would have stopped her. Right

she was saying, heystop, what are you doing right now? But she

didn't. She was doing anything doing anything wrong. She was preparing the table

for Jesus, she was serving Jesus. She was doing all these things.

She was going there preparing the food, and so like my mom, she

was feeding her guests. She was doing what she feels that we were supposed

to do. But once again, that wasn't why Jesus came. Jesus didn't

come to a house to eat. She just didn't come to a house just

to like want her to do all the things. She just came to talk.

I believe each of you here Jesus came here to spend time with you

in your own very day life. She is the reason why Jesus came into

your life, was justly to actually spend time with you. Amen. And

here's the third point as well, which I actually really noticed. Martha,

she was drowning in work because she made herself that busy, right, she

was drowning work. And then she went to Jesus and she said, hey,

Mary's not doing anything, why don't ask them to help me as well?

So for us as leaders or as people in Chish for quite some time,

do we feel that that? Do we feel that as well? Every

week? I think, I come here, I set up this place.

Every week, I coordinate so many things, and then like during place and

worship, during the world, I'm like putting things in order. And then

sometimes sometimes honestly, I also say, hey Lord, why don't Justine we

come and help me go and organize this kind of stuff, you know,

because he's like so good organizing things. Why don't my wife come and help

learn the piano so that she can play the piano doing plays the worship.

I didn't need to think, who's gonna play pano next week? Right?

Why don't why don't die and play the drums? Because you know, she

always only played keyboard and that's it. She could play more stuff, you

know, why not? Why not they come and do all these things?

You know, why? Because I'm so drowning in work. Right. But

that's the thing I realized. I realized as Christians, we also have to

acknowledge that God came to meet other people as well. God came to just

because we make ourselves busy, like Martha, just because she makes herself busy,

does it mean that she has the right to pull Mary away from the

experience from God just because you choose to do the lesser portion. That's what

you just said, You choose to pull people away from God. So,

reflecting about myself, I also asked myself this question. Was getting those things

done more important than letting people be in God's presence? Was it more important

that I being God's presence? Was it more important that I continue to like

sort of focus on God at this point of time. So those are my

three points that I actually saw from Martha. It was the wrong time to

be busy. That's number one. Number two, she was distracted, And

third one, she tried to pull people away atus in. Sorry, she

tried to pull us in. So let's go to question two. So what

can you observe about Mary? Then when you read about Mary, what can

you observe? First point about Mary is that Mary chose to participate. A

big thing about the Christian life is that God wants to spend time with you.

It's not just about the doing. It's not just about figuring out what

can we do to make God love us more. It's not just about that,

but it justus spending time to participate. Why do we do church every

week? Why the Bible asks us to come together as believers. We participate

because when we come here we support one another. We come here we engage

with God. We come here we see from God. We come here we

pray over one another. And when we come here, we support one another

man even in your own daily lives as well. Why is it important to

realize that you're not just a student. You're not just a person a young

wy a doubt. You're not just a called campus student. You're not just

a person in this world trying to survive. But you are a Christian.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Is that you walk with Christ

as Christ? Did you walk with Christ? Do you spend time every day

hearing from Christ? You spend time every day hearing from God? Do you

set a side time for you to even receee from God? I know there's

people or even myself. Actually we always say that, Oh, doing well

in my job is being God. Oh getting good results and an exam is

being God. It is true. It is true. It is true.

But once again, if you're doing that and you're not spending time with God,

if you're doing that and you're not coming to gathering our believers, if

you're doing that, not coming to a place where you can RISKI for not

coming to a place where you can even pray for one another, then I

would say that you're actually being distracted by good things. Those are practical duties,

but that shouldn't take you away from spending time with God. Amen.

So Mary knew there was time to receive. She knew sometimes. I think

so one of my experienced that I realized last time when I was younger.

I think it's one of the conferences, Rebel conference. I remember that I

was doing sound. Yes, I did sound since I was fifteen years old.

I think the time was about twenty plus years So I did sound.

And then that moment, that's where I believe that God came. There was

a little glimpse of revival. People were going out to the auto, people

were being prayed for. I remember God told me the time, Canji go

get prayed for, Kenji, go have you an encounter. But I was

like, no, I think it's fine. I just stay back doing my

sound things because you know who else is going to do these sound things other

than Kenji, Because you know Kenji's the sound guy, right, So I

just stay by and do those sound things. But I regret it. You

know why, because I heard many testimonies and many people received their breakthroughths,

many people received from God, many people encounter God even though just a touch

from God, just a touch from the Holy Spirit, many people were revived.

But I chose otherwise to do other things, and it will be one

of my greatest regrets ever since. So since then, every time there is

a chance to be prayed for, there is a chance to come in front

to receive, there's chance to be in the house of God. There is

a chance in the morning when I wake up that I can actually pray or

even read my Bible. I will actually do that because I don't want to

miss another opportunity to hear from God. Amen. So that's why I encourage

you to do as well. The second thing that I realized for Mary,

she recognized who was in her house. She recognized who there. Do you

realize that Jesus is here? Jesus is in your lives. You invited Jesus

into your life, right for us who are Christians, we invited that.

But I think for me as well, I realize that sometimes I live as

if Jesus is not there. Like I every day I go to work,

I finish work, I start my campaign, so I do on Facebook and

do stuff. I finish all those things. But I don't live as if

Jesus is there. Sometimes I feel that Jesus tells me. Sometimes I feel

that, oh, there is actually a little bit time that I can spend

in prayer, but no, it's okay. I prefer to sleep instead.

There's a little time that I can choose to to pray with somebody, listen

to somebody's testimony, but I choose to sleep instead. I think it's because

I didn't I didn't realize that who was in my life. I didn't realize

who was who was the person that came into my life? Who was Who

is this Jesus that is in my life. If you knew, if you

knew, if you only knew that Jesus, if you only realize that Jesus

is in your life, I think we will live a little bit differently.

Amen, So for Mary, Why do I say that she recognized who was

in the house. It's not just that she said in Jesus' feet, It's

not just that she just go and, like you know, sit and just

be the most participating. For one. In John chapter twelve, verse thirteen,

I went in a Bible school, so they asked me to everything.

It's a refer to the scripture, So I better refer to scripture otherwise be

heresy. So yes, John chapter twelve, first three. Mary went to

meet Jesus, and she and in this story, she took a pound of

expensive ointment made of pure and art and anointed Jesus' feet because she knew she

recognized who Jesus was. She knew this man wasn't just some friend. This

man was the man, the son of God. She anointed the feet of

Jesus and white his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with

fragrance of the perfume. She was willing to go to the extent to honor

God. She was willing to go to the extent to just spend time with

him. She's willing to go to the extent to just to show God how

much she means to how much she means to her. To her, it's

not. So the question is until we recognize who God is in our lives,

I think I think we need to change the way that we live.

Even for myself as well. I'm trying my best. I mean, I

actually appreciate that extra hours sleep, but nowadays a I tried to sleep early,

I tried to wake up in the morning, honestly, but my wife

always like, clim me down, and she said, don't wake up solarly.

She wants me to stay in bed. So if I wake up late

because of my wife. Yeah, but but but I realized that if Jesus

is real in my life, I got to live like it in men at

that point, very seasonal opportunity. So this is my revelation Mary that I

when I did some reading, did you guys know did you guys know that

in in like those Jewish customs, right, these Jewish customs, those rabbis,

they don't allow some people to sit their feet. I know we didn't

know by Ba all the time, but they don't allow female to sit in

their feet because in the Jewish customs, females are not allowed to teach the

word. When you see that the feet for rabbi. You are the rabbi's

disciple. So they normally see that the feed of rabbi to receive them rare

rabbi so that they can actually teach other people. But they don't allow women

to do that in the Jewish customs. So when Jesus came to the home

Mary's home, she saw that opportunity, like, hey, nobody's here to

stop me from sitting at Jesus' feet. She sees the opportunity to sit there

and receive from God. She realized that she saw that there was an up

perfect opportunity to sit there, weceived from God directly be close proximity with Jesus.

It is actually not a common thing for them, but Mary sees the

opportunity. So you know, you know everyday lives as well. Do we

see this is the opportunities that we can actually spend time with God. Do

we seize every encounter with Jesus? Do we seize every encounter with with the

Holy Spirit? Do we see every opportunity we have to at it, have

the encounter even Jesus sit in the Bible. So we will always like worry

about many things in our own lives. Right for me, well, my

dad just to share a little bit bout myself. My dad's a stroke patient,

so he got he like sort of got a stroke, I think a

few years back. So he's like on the bed every day. So every

day what's on my mind is that I kind of need to pick him up,

kind of need to put him down on the bed, need to feed

him. I think I need to pay for bills at home as well.

I need to think about in the future, what's gonna happen with my wife

and me. Are they stally gonna stay with us? If they stay with

us? Do I have space? Do I have to the capability? Am

I going to have kids in the future. If I have kids in the

future, it would be double the costs and I don't have to survive anymore.

I have all these things in my head at the same time, past

the d asked me, he said, you know, can g can you

help out with sound stuff? And then I really want to help out the

church because I love the church. I love I love serving, I love

being part of all this doing what my passion. And then on my job

as well, I work like two different jobs every day doing all these things,

and every day it is just a cycle of just going through the motions

of life at the same time as well as people need to fall up on.

You know, the day I was just talking to Yeshaw about stuff.

I texted some people just to find out how they were doing. I got

a best friend who's going through a tough time in his marriage. He prays

he coming. He calls me every day at six o'clock just to just to

talk, crack jokes and just talk about talk about Pokemon and stuff. So

all these things are going on in my life, everything constantly. Every day

when I wake come in the morning, all these things are in my head,

and I realize there's one thing that through all this true, all this,

Can I see it is an opportunity for myself. Can I see the

opportunity for me to actually be in the presence of God? Can I see

is an opportunity for me to receive from God? And that's why I challenge

myself to do every day. And you know, you know the Bible actually

says in Matthew six but thirty one to thirty four, he says, therefore,

do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat, what shall we

drink? What shall we wear? For the gentile sick. After all these

things and you're having your father knows that you need them all. But sie

key, first, the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these

things shall be added on to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about

tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient, for the day is

its own trouble. When I read this, God reminded me and say that,

hey, you know, can she? I know you're trying to honor

me every day. I know you're trying to do all these things. I

know you're trying to be a good husband. I know you're trying to be

all these great things. But can she wait? Wait, wait, remember

you are my child. You are the person that I really love. So

wait, let me strengthen you, Let me talk to you, let me

spend time with you, let me input in you. Because the Bible says

as well that she's look is lighter. And that's what I received from God.

And this is the greatest reminder for me, especially you know you know

I'm Chinese, right, yeah, Asian culture. Great, God, I

know that we're a performance culture because when I was young or so, everything

is about your a's everything is about your you get a be your like date,

you know kind of thing. Everything is about achieving the best. Everything

is about your A plus right. Even if your parents don't pressure you,

your friends will pressure you. So that that's in my mind. So for

me loving God last time is how much can you do? How much can

you sacrifice for God? How much can you, like you know, do

all these great things? How much can you like are you? Are you

a senior pastor of the church already by the age of thirty five? If

not, your walk with God isn't great. How many portfolios are you holding

in church? How many things are you doing in church? Are you just

doing sound? Are you just doing sound? Oh, you're just a sound

guy. After ten years your failure, you should be doing more things already.

Are you leading a small group? Yeah? So that's my mind.

In the Asian culture is about performance. How many portfolios are you're handing right

now? Are you moving up the corporate letter? But this is the revelation

that I caught puriously, especially on Tuesday, with doing praise and worship,

and God asked me to go out and pray, but I didn't go out

and pray. So I'm preaching these masses right now. Yeah, you know,

God save me. Hallelujah. This is what God said, He said,

Inefficients chapter two, verse eight to nine. Or by grace you have

been safe, true faith. And this is not by your own doing.

This is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that

no one may boast. Your faith is not because of what you do.

Your salvation is not because of what you do. Because because at the end

of the day, there's nothing you can do. There's nothing more we can

do to make God love us more. Can I get amen to that?

So? I know as Christians we always forget this. There's nothing more we

can do to make God love us more. He already loves us so much.

He loves us so much until He sent his son to die for us

on the cross. Amen. He sent his son to die for us on

the cross so that our sins can be taken away ultimately, Why so that

he can unite with us. So in Ephisius chapter two, verse thirteen to

sixteen. So this is what I received that day, he says. But

now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off from being brought near

by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has

made us both one and has broken, has broken down in his flesh,

the dividing wall of hostility by a bla loss of love, of commandments expressed

in ordinance, that he might create himself one new man in place of two.

So they're making peace. Americ consult us. So this is the key

one my work, consult us both to God in one body through the cross,

thereby killing the hostility. God died for you to take your sins away

because He wants to be with you. When I actually say that God wants

to spend time with you, it wasn't just like, oh, did you

know by the way, God wants to spend time with you. No,

I'm not saying that. I'm saying God wants to spend time with you so

much that he sends his son all the way from Heaven to Earth to die

for us since so that he can spend time with you. The reason why

we go to heaven is because God wants to be with us. Amen.

So it's no longer what we can do. But on earth in our Christian

life, do we make time for him? Do we walk with him?

Amen? So there is time for practical duties there's time. There is a

time for us to do all those things we need to continue to live our

everyday lives. Right, there's time for us to get our good grades,

you know, be a life in where you stand. You know, there's

a time for those things. But there is also a time for devotion.

There is also a time when you come here doing praise and worship. Do

we not want to participate? Do we not want to lift out our hands?

Do we not want to receive from God? If lifting up your hands

will will He's a sign of surrender and God says, hey, I will

respond to that. Will we not do that? If singing the songs is

just a decoration and just showing God how much you want him in your life,

and God responds to that, do we not want to do that?

Coming to church? Although the time is tough, because when you come here,

you can actually pray over somebody. When you come here, somebody can

pray over you and receive a revelation from God. Do we not want that

in your own lives? So well, when you wake up in the morning,

well, I'm a gift you of this because I always open social media

in the morning, trying to change that. But in the morning when we

wake up. Do we want to receive a verse from God? Do we

want that? Do you want to spend time with Got in that manner?

Have you ever been instructed? Have you ever missed out in your life because

good things? When was the last time you have an encounter with God?

When was the last time you came out for prayer? When was the last

time you properly could focus and hear what Jesus had to say? Maybe God

has something important to say to you, but sometimes we just miss it.

Do we recognize who Jesus is in our lives? Do we see several opportunity

to spend time with him? Or do we spend more time thinking about what

we can do instead. Thank you for listening to the Generation's Church podcast.

We hope you have been blessed by the Word of God today. Remember to

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