Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
So great to see you guys. How many of you, anybody here like me that you just finished your taxes? Anybody here anybody here still get taxes for due? Right? I was just saying to some of the guys, it's like, isn't that wonderful? You know, I spent a couple days tracking down all the receipts and finding the forms and the things that, they send and the things that I didn't organize earlier. I got it all done, did all my got all the details together, and then you do it this whole thing and it's like it's so great to get it done and then find out at the end the standard deduction is just still like better for it. Like I go like, oh my gosh. At the end of that, I don't feel joy. I think I just feel relief. But, this evening, you know, we're doing a a series we started, at Easter actually about a faith that works. Because, you know, I I think all of us that there's been times that something it wasn't clicking for me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:59]:
And yet this the scripture talks about the fact that faith works, that that faith, makes a difference in our day to day life. And, sometimes maybe you're, maybe I don't know if you relate to this, but a little while ago I was doing a project and trying to fix the fence and doing all these things that I needed to get done, but I needed to use a power drill for that. And I bought all the materials, I did all those things and then I pull out my drill, put the pack in and start to drill and it's like you guys ever like, oh my gosh. You go like, it's just there's no power. Right? It's it it was already drained. So I said, well, we put everything away, put the battery pack in the charger, and, hey. This will be great. And then the next thing I know, the next day I'll try it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:47]:
Right? So then you start bringing all the things out again and then, you know, all that and then put the battery pack in the drill, start again. And it just the battery couldn't hold a charge. Right? What was the solution is, to be honest, I needed to get a new battery. Now I don't know if you've ever been in that place where, you know, you've you've you've been energized, you've had power, you've had a sense of well-being, you've had a sense of joy, and now all of a sudden, right? And then you tried what you tried before. You did what you did before. And and maybe it goes, but it's can't hold. And you can't get a new battery. You can't just change a new battery, but there are some things you can do to recover the joy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:32]:
And that's what we wanna talk about this evening, that wherever you're at, whatever your life has been like, and that God says that the joy is a possibility, not only joy is a possibility, that's what his desire is. And this evening, we're gonna read that together. We're gonna start by reading in, John 15:11, and, would you be kind enough? Let's stand in reverence for God and reverence for His word. And let's read what it says in John 15:11. This is Jesus speaking. He says this. Ready? Let's read. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:07]:
And so what does he says gonna be in you? He says, my joy. Right? He doesn't say that so I'm not saying that so that you just store up and stoke up your emotions and and that you have the joy that the world can give. He said, no, no. I wanna give you the joy that that I can give, a joy that's that's beyond the world. But he says, what will happen as a result of that, that when you have a joy that comes from heaven, he says what can happen is the joy that you actually have can be fulfilled. Because it's not only your what the accomplishment of you want. It's not always because the things turned out the way that you would like. He's saying in all these situations, your joy can be completed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:48]:
And so this evening before you're seated, just turn to your neighbor says, God wants to complete your joy and to be full. And then you can have a seat. Right? You know, I know it's hard to believe that, it's been actually, I've been 4 decades of walking with Jesus at this point. I started when I was 7 years old. No. But like, that's yeah. It's a big lie from hell. But, you know, the thing is I but, you know, the the thing is when I gave my life to Jesus, I started with a joy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:20]:
And I started that it's it's amazing that the the moment that I said yes to Jesus, it's like a weight was lifted from my shoulder. You might have heard me say that. And it's like, in college, this whole thing and never experienced, never went to church, never did any of this, and and I started to experience God. And it's like I would walk around with a with a dumb smile on my face. People would know the difference. And he said Glenn, what's different with you? Man, you're you're smiling because I used to be known as the guy that, like, never smiled. It was like sometimes my friends or or my girlfriend, they might get asked, hey. Does Glenn not like me? And it and they would be like, why you ask? He said, oh, because he he not frowning.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:59]:
I wasn't the scowling guy, but just wasn't like joy would not be the the word. And then after I became a believer, there was this this sense. I I just I would be walking around campus. I would be moving around doing the things that I I did before, but I would have, like, this dumb smile on my face. Right? And and people noticed. And my family noticed. Right? My friends started to notice. And and yet at the same time, there's been seasons like that and then there's been seasons where where did all that go? Right? It just seems like it's spiritually it's it's like a desert.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:35]:
It's spiritually it seems like it's not that God has disappeared, but I that that intimacy, that closeness. Now that I I so I know what that's like and and and having to be replenished and and and, and finding a way to do that. And there are seasons and times that that you need to do things by faith. There are seasons and times where you just say you operate like, like, what is that called? Like on the artificial horizon, you know, like when you can't see, you're flying in the dark and you cannot see the land and you don't know where you're going and there's clouds in the way, but you follow the direction. There's seasons like that that we're called to do, but it ought not to be the tenor for all of our life. It not ought not to be the the time that is like a a the default. God says to us that I I believe that that he wants us to experience him and to have a joy about it. Merriam Webster says that joy is an emotion that's evolved by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing with one desires.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:42]:
Right? So sometimes we even see that in the scripture where where, we see it in the song of Solomon and the the joy of a husband and a wife, a young bride and a groom and and the the culmination of the anticipation. We see that kind of played out like that. But so often, this is really, I think, more of a description of not joy as much as happiness, that which is a lot more circumstantial based. Right? It's because things worked out, because it's it's like you got what you hoped for, because, the things, fell your way. And the hard part about happiness is we all wanna be happy and we would all like to have happiness, but happiness is fleeting. Right? Because the moment something doesn't work out the way that you are or or you get frustrated, how do you handle those kinds of things? And so, you can win the championship or you can get the promotion or you can buy the new car or you can get the new thing that you wanted or but as soon as you get cut off in traffic, what happens? There's something that's like right? It's it's all gone. And so we lose that sense at times of happiness or well-being. And so we're talking about not something that is fleeting like that, but something that can stay.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:56]:
And so the first thing we're gonna look at, 4 things this evening, but that would you know the first thing is this that 1st know this, that joy is not simply an emotion. Joy is not simply an emotion. Though obviously it can be accompanied by emotion, it can be accompanied by very pleasant emotions, but the thing is that it doesn't always happen that way. Now, how do we say why do I say that? Because the scriptures tell us that that it's possible to have joy and that joy sustain us even in the hardest of situations. Last week, we talked about how to get through a a tough season and how to let God begin to redeem even the mistakes in your life that knowing that he's working all the things together, even your mistakes for his good. We talked about it's not that he it doesn't happen to the ones that God loves, but the one that God's loves back that loves God back. Right? We talked about that because it's in that moment that then when you submit and you experience this, right? But we see this happen in actually in Hebrews chapter 12. And in Hebrews chapter 12, this is what it says, and let us run with perseverance.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:05]:
Say the word perseverance. Perseverance. Right? So sometimes you need to endure. Sometimes you need to, keep running when you rather stop. Sometimes you need to keep moving when you wanna sit down. But he says this, what are we running towards? What are we running with perseverance? The race that's marked out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of faith. And let's just read that next sentence or this next phrase before, together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:34]:
Can we? Ready? Let's read. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Now when Jesus was hanging on the cross, there was something that allowed him to endure that. Now, that when he was nailed to the cross, when his back was torn open, when he had been beaten, when he had been sleep deprived, when he had been mocked and spit on, and and the crown of thorns, raked across his head, and and and beaten in in in ways unimaginable, punched in in in in ways that, is like a sucker punch when he was blindfolded that we find those things. He's on the cross. But it says, you know, if it was me on the cross at that time, I would have you know what my prayer would have been? I could endure if I told the Lord, burn them up Lord. You know, not what it that's not what held Jesus on the cross. What did it say? It was a joy that was set before him allowed him to endure the cross.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:37]:
Although he scorned the shame, he did not he did not enjoy the shame, but that he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And what is that future joy? The reality is I think it's not just conceptual. It's not just a concept that he would he would win the world to himself, that he would pay for sin and that that people could enter into a relationship with God and be forgiven. I don't think it was just the theoretical concept. I believe that he saw people throughout time. He saw people at the foot of the cross. I believe that he could see through the time and and dimensions that had not yet existed and he could see you and he could see me. And he says, you know what? I I endure this because I know that doing this, allows a a young man in in Hawaii that that kinda doesn't even know why he exists, but it I'll make a way for him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:44]:
I I I I'm looking at this because I see this this this woman who's kinda had a brokenness and and it seems like everything has gone against her, that that she's raising this child. It it allows her to experience real if God sees you, I believe God sees me right where we're at. And and so it says that when he saw that, he said, it's worth it. He when he saw that, he says, I can stand the cross. Right? And and so we see obviously is that a is that a good thing? Obviously it's not, but it's when we say it's not strictly an emotion, in some sense, joy, I think, is a supra emotion. In other words, it does it does hit emotions, it does come with emotions, but sometimes it's stacked on top of or undergirds other emotions. Because at times, you know, like if you were to, let's say, lose a job, are you gonna be like, woo hoo, man, I lost my job. Right? I don't if you like getting paid, it's the fear or the the the sadness or the sense of rejection or the anger, right, that happens sometimes when things don't go your way.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:19]:
You know, I think that when I experienced these unpleasant emotions, if I have a source of joy in operation in my life, it undergirds my life that gets me through those hard times. I say this as well because I think if not, at times we draw the wrong conclusions and we think that God thinks about us differently than He does. And I say this because, we're gonna read a passage that is very well known that about the joy of the Lord is my strength. Right? And you say, oh, doesn't that sound good? Isn't it? The joy of the Lord is my strength. But but if you look at where it's written in the context of this chapter, it happens in the book of Nehemiah. And in the book of Nehemiah, it tells the story of the people of God rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, which had been ransacked and rampaged for generations and and had been, really just a kind of a dump in some ways, as a result. Years earlier, Ezra had come and they rebuilt the temple, but the problem was the city was undefended. And so, they rebuilt the walls with this, kind of the input of this guy, Nehemiah and his leadership.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:35]:
And it says that when the walls got rebuilt, they reinstituted the sacrifice. They reinstituted the celebration of some of the the festivals that were in the scriptures. And and so they called everybody together, and it says that Ezra, before they did all the celebration, he read the words of the old testament. He read the words of the law. And as he read the words of the law, he he was reading God's covenant. But you know what they heard was that they hadn't been doing all of these years. Right? What they heard was like, if you're like me, that when I was getting ready to file my taxes and and prepare my taxes that I think, okay, where's the envelopes? And the the sometimes I put them in ziplock bags, all the receipts that I needed. Then I looked, got like tree receipts inside.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:26]:
Right? I got like right. It's like I was like, alright. Like, you know what you should do? You should, like, you should keep maintain a file, put everything you need in that file. And and then I say it's like me reading about how to prepare to do taxes and then I look at it and I get like, you know, one form. And it sets apart like, oh my gosh, all the things I haven't done all year. You know what I mean? And and so they're hearing this that they haven't been doing the sacrifices, they haven't been, you know, worshiping God, they haven't been confessing. They they notice all the things they've been doing wrong, and it says at that point, the people began to weep as he read the law. They were heartbroken.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:11]:
They were convicted. But, you know, sometimes we can feel bad and we can feel sad, and there is a godly sorrow, but this wasn't one of them. Because at that point, it says that Nehemiah gets up and he goes, wait wait wait wait wait wait. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. And he says this. Let's read what it says Nehemiah 8:10.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:35]:
What does it say? Do not grieve. I did not have the law read so that you would feel bad and just be thought about all the things you didn't do and all the mistakes in your life and all the would'ves and the could'ves and the should'ves, but he says this, instead, I hadn't read. Why? Because what? The joy of the Lord is your strength. Because even though you didn't do it, even though you failed this, he says this, that if you still turn your heart toward God, He'll still be your strength. If you still seek Him, he still can help you. Right? You you may not have batted a 1,000, but that doesn't disqualify you from experiencing his grace and his mercy. The word grieve is to be troubled and to be hurt. You know, if if when we look at God, all we think about is the fact that how much I didn't do and what I should have done and what I didn't do.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:42]:
And it it don't rob anybody of a sense of joy. Right? But when we think that the fact is that God is still merciful, that God is still has made a way, that He still can sustain us, something happens. Because this joy goes beyond your performance. It goes beyond your circumstance. It goes beyond what you could have done to undergird and bring strength, like a like a steel beam, like you might see under here that we're if you're on the 2nd floor, you're not just standing or seated on a carpet. You're actually seated on a floor of concrete above our heads. But what is under the concrete? The steel I beams that can hold the weight. And I think what it's saying that sometimes you may have other currents in your life that make you upset or frustrated or discouraged, and maybe you feel bad about yourself or you maybe you're not sure, can God get me through this? Or maybe this is my lot.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:50]:
Maybe I've done too much already, but God says this, no. My strength can still my presence can still undergird you and would that give you joy? When I became a believer and I had said that I had experienced that sense of joy and freshness and well, they came on the heels of a bad breakup. Right? Came on the heels of my brother being in the hospital going through stage 4 cancer with which was 10 recorded cases at that time in Hawaii. Rare, like all of them were old men except my brother. And so I was still processing kind of that stress and that pain, but, but all of a sudden the, the hardness was being replaced by a sense of of joy that God was with me. I before. I never had a God before, except sometimes I was my own God. I did what I thought was right all the time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:55]:
Unfortunately, didn't lead me down the right roads. And so, you know, in the that sense, God still He renewed my joy. Maybe joy that I hadn't experienced since I was a kid when I was innocent. Felt clean like I never felt clean. I never I don't know if you guys know what that means, but I had never felt clean like that in a long, long time. But here's the thing is if joy is not just an emotion then, what is joy? Joy is biblically first tied. It's biblically, it's tied to your attachment to God. Joy is relational more than it's theoretical.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:43]:
And you might not always be able to explain it, but you can experience it. And it says it like this in Numbers 6. And the verse we're gonna read, it's a blessing. Sometimes you hear it as a kind of like the closing prayer in a church service, right, a benediction. I grew up when I first got saved, I was going to a Calvary chapel and they would read this or quote this every week, and it was powerful. But it's the the words that come from God's telling Moses specifically, this is how you bless people. He said, I want you to do this. And he said this, the Lord, what? Bless you and keep you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:28]:
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. So they will be put so they will put my name on the Israelites and I will what? Bless them. Now in this instruction, what is he saying? He's he's saying this, that the blessing isn't just that God blesses you and protects you, but that his face is shining on you. Now, I wanna ask you this, have you ever been in a place where someone that you love or someone that you respect or someone that you care about, that that you blew it so bad that they told you, I cannot look at you right now. Have you ever been in that place? I've been in that place. Unfortunately, I've said those words. Right? Like, get out of this room because I cannot look at you know, I've said words like that in the past when I just was so angry and maybe there was a a failure, you know, that happened.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:48]:
And but this is what he's saying. This is where joy is found. It says what does it say? The Lord make his face shine on you. What is that like? It's that when God turns his head and he looks at you, he's smiling. Oh, you made it. So glad that you're here. That's really the concept that would you know that God, when he sees you, when he knows what's going on in your life, when he when you present yourself, this is what God doesn't say to you. I cannot even look at you right now.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:35]:
You make me so sick. You make me so angry. Right? Or whatever that that case. It says this. This is the blessing. What's the blessing? God is beaming as He looks at you. And what does that do for us? When the Lord turns His face toward you, you're like, oh, I have peace. Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:59]:
It's okay. Not saying that I not gonna be responsible, I'm not saying that I might not have a consequence. I might I'm not saying any of that, but it's okay because he's he's still for me. Right? Does that does that look like that's what it's saying? Because protection and blessing and all those things are not the biggest things. It's the fact that God is for you, that He's pleased to be with you. God's face in the scriptures is connected with joy. God's face. In Psalm 16, it says this, you make known to me the paths of life and you will fill me with joy in your presence.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:47]:
Let's say the word presence. Presence. With eternal pleasures at your right hand. Now here's the thing that interestingly, that word presence that I had underlined, would you just circle that word and then draw a line and then write the word face connected to that word? Because the Hebrew word that is translated presence here is the Hebrew word pane, which is literally the word face. So what it's saying is, you fill me with joy when your face is looking at me with pleasures that are never ending. But sometimes that we will read Bible verses like that, that the literal word is the face of God, but sometimes it's translated as the presence of God. Is that is that like wrong? No. It's not wrong.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:51]:
I understand why they use presence, but there's something that the scriptures are tying the face of God to joy. Not just it's not the hand of God. Right? The hand of God in the scriptures is often designated as power. You know, it says that it was by the hand of God that he opened the seas. Right? It's the it's the by the finger of God that by which He cast out demons. It's those things is sometimes it's the hand of the Lord that gives like a dramatic provision. Right? That kind of a thing. That's what it talks about, the hand of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:35]:
And and when we seek God, we don't shouldn't just seek the hand of God. God, do this thing and give me all the goodies. Like, we all want goodies every once in a while. We all have things that we need God to do. But this is what it's saying, that where does the joy come from? Not because it's like, oh man, I got the job now. Oh man, I got what I wanted now. Because that doesn't last, does it? But he says this, it's when you look and his face is looking at you and he's smiling. He's glad you're here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:07]:
That's the picture it paints, that joy is tied to relational attachment in some time in some ways. And it's not just the Old Testament, we see it in the New Testament. 2nd Corinthians 4:6, Paul says this, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God, and of God's glory displayed in what? The face of Christ. The face of Christ. I don't know what you picture, but if if you, you know, like we when we read the stories and maybe sometimes I have a good imagination, I'm guessing, but I when I sometimes I read the stories and I read about how the lepers were calling out to Jesus or the blind man well, I I'm not gonna say the blind man in this case because you'll see why. But when the the leper is calling out to Jesus, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us, and he turns, and let's just say you're the leper. What does Jesus's face look like? What? I heard you the first time. Is that what does Jesus's face look like? I don't think that God is irritated and angry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:28]:
You know, like, if you notice Jesus, so much of his ministry is he's interrupted. He's going to the Pharisee's house, the the leader of the synagogue in in Mark in Mark 8 to go heal his daughter who's dying on her bed. And in the middle of that, this lady who's been having menstrual bleeding for 12 years, somehow in the middle of the crowd reaches out, manages to grab his cloak, gonna grab his robe and says, if I just I don't have to touch Jesus, I just gotta touch what Jesus is touching and that He'll heal me. And it says that right at that moment, she was healed. And then all of a sudden it stops, everything stops. And the, hey, who touched me? Right? And everybody's like, what are you talking about? It's like crazy. There's so many people touching you. But he's just interrupted.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:25]:
But what does he say to that woman? Daughter, your faith has made you well. Was he irritated? No. No. What do we see? I think this is what it's saying. We see the light of God. If we see Jesus, when he turns around and he looks at you, it says the light of God will shine in your heart by the face of Jesus. When you looked at Jesus, it's the light of God that will shine in your heart. Because in the scripture, joy is not only tied to the presence of God, but it's it's the relational connection that we have to God that what it it talks about.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:12]:
There's a author out there. His name is Jim Wilder. He's, he's written a couple of books. He's done some different things. I've been reading this book that he's talking, about this is the other half of church. And he Jim is a PhD has a PhD in psychology, has extensive clinical experience, as well as a MA in theological studies. So sometime he describes himself as a neuro theologian. And, but part of what he writes in one of the books is this aspect about, how your right brain and your left brain, process information differently.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:50]:
And let's just say the right side of your brain is the more logical problem solving, thinking strategies, language side, right? You'd kind of think about cause and effect and the left, the right side, I'm sorry, that was the left side, the right side of your brain processes identity and language and emotionally connecting with other people, assesses your surroundings whether it's good, bad, or scary, and then relational attachments. And and so he talks this aspect that it's not that we need, like, to just throw out one side. He says, we just need both sides. Right? We need to engage your whole brain. Right? That you need to be rational and reasonable and figure stuff out, but you also need to be able to connect. You also need to be able to relate. You also need to be able to, kinda have a sense of identity and all these things. Right? You need you need your whole brain.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:46]:
Do me for you. Turn to your neighbors. You need your whole brain. Right? Right? We don't need to be half brain. Right? But, so he's saying in this book, this is what he says. He says this, brain science reveals that this joy sensation is crucial for emotional and relational development. Our brain looks specifically to the face of another person to find joy. So this is programmed for us that when we were children, right, that when you were children, that when a baby, you guys ever, like you see the baby, not like when they're so young they cannot see anything, when they're really young they can't see anything, right? We used to think like when we had the newborn, they say, oh, look, he's smiling at me and the nurse comes in, oh, no, no, they cannot see a face yet, right? That's probably just gas.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:33]:
Like, oh, thanks. God bless you too nurse. But later when they see you, right, that maybe they're crying and somebody else is holding them and then and then maybe you say, oh, come come come to daddy or come to mommy, and then they they see you and what happens? Because they recognize your face. That that children's brains are imprinted to look at the face of another person and to identify that person. Right? That's just kind of that's inherent in what it means to be a human being. And so he's saying that our brain looks specifically that way because the face is the key. So when a Bible translation erases, he say the picture of God's face, sometimes our brains don't connect as strongly because maybe if you're kind of more logic oriented and theological and there's nothing wrong with that. That's great, right? But you use a concept, oh, that God's presence is good.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:42]:
But it's just different to say God's looking at me and face to face and he's smiling. That's a totally different thing. And and so he says these things. Why? Because he says, I want your joy to be complete, we read earlier. Right? And so we see this aspect. Another guy writes in his book called The Joy Switch, Chris Corsey, he says, brain science says you are the possessor of a great gift. This is no ordinary gift. The gift makes people glad you're here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:21]:
The gift is used to bring smiles and laughter and even warm fuzzy feelings. But this gift is not money. It's not fame. It's not power. It's not good looks. And, he says this, inside your brain is a secret circuit, a relational engine. This is the same thing that Jim Wilder is talking about, which goes by many names. Some call it the control center, some call it the relational circuit, some call it the social engagement system, but I refer it refer to it as your secret circuit because it's there, but people don't know how to use it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:59]:
And so that secret circuit is your brain's relational circuit. And so God appeals to that. He's saying that he doesn't come to give you a religion. He came that we would have a relationship. And so we need to learn how to connect to God relationally. And that's why this this week, when we even talked about, on Wednesday, I just talked about the Lord's prayer. The first prayer the first part of the prayer that he says is to connect to God relationally. Right? Because he doesn't say, oh, maker of heaven and earth, who blesses the earth that brings forth bread.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:41]:
Right? That was a prayer that they literally prayed in Jesus' time. But he says this, this is how They said, Lord, teach us to pray. How did he say? Father, connect relationally. That's what, that's the first thing, but that he's calling us to connect that way. But he also says you need people and community in your life to strengthen joy as well. So it's great that you can connect 1 to 1 with God, but sometimes you need more than that in your life. The the scriptures never paint that just you and God in the corner, that you don't need nobody because God is like, that's not the picture that the scripture paints. If you were stranded on a desert island, that works.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:31]:
Right? But that's not how we live. Right? We can isolate ourselves, but that's not what we're supposed to do. When I first got involved in a ministry after my brother passed away, and I I, I I I found when I went back to college and to finish up after I'd taken off some time to help my family, that the first thing I said was I, I, I met one of my friends that the first guy ever led to Christ, my classmate from since 8th grade, I said, hey. Let's just find a, like, a Bible study or a Christian group. And so I wanted to find a place that helped me to know God and would tell other people about God because I I just like, I realized I thought I knew I thought I was relatively intelligent, but I never heard the gospel. No one ever invited me to church. And I just said that when I came to know Jesus, I said, I don't want other people to have to go, like, to me, like, never even having heard. I couldn't even respond.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:39]:
K. I didn't know. I mean, to be honest, might have had people, but I just blew them off. But, you know, people did say, but I'm gonna pray for you. It's like, hey. Keep your prayer to yourself. No. But, so the thing is that I went.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:55]:
Right? And then I connected with these this group, and it was the first time that I I got together with people my age that were going in the same direction that were were like like me sometimes processing coming out of the world, and and we found this group and you found connections. And the thing that bound us that sometimes it was, like, the only thing that bound us was that you knew Jesus and I know Jesus too. And I was like, wow, that's amazing that your your heavenly father is my heavenly father. And and some of those guys was like musical and I had no musical ability. That's why you don't see him on the worship team. But, like, there's there's some of those guys that were, like, the band geeks and I wasn't a band geek. Right? Some guys were, like, super crazy and I wasn't, like, super crazy. I was I was kinda was good boy, became crazy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:48]:
But, like, you know, I wasn't, like, super like, just different people. But what held us together was this, we knew Jesus. And sometimes what happened is that we would get together and you'd study and to be honest, not that much studying was going around. Not because we were doing stupid stuff, but it's because we're just talking and enjoying each other's company and laughing and getting to know what it's like to grow in this thing. And there was love that was engendered in that moment. And it began probably, like, 12 years where I grew the most in my life that because it was that one of because it was of still the beginning. But the second, it was like because you cannot just grow by yourself. You cannot do to one another's without one another, encourage one another, support one another, pray for one another, right, to to strengthen one another, to carry one another's load.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:45]:
You cannot do that apart from your by yourself. But I experienced that. And it's like it's like water in the desert. Right now, I heard death valley is blooming in green Because the conditions when water hits, boom, life happens. And that happens in people that, when that condition hits. And so I went on staff and I did all these things and I always had people over my house and I fed so many starving college students or just hungry college students. They're not starving. They just came and eat my food.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:26]:
But, sometimes they're we're just hanging out. Sometimes we're praying over and walking through difficult things. And sometimes we're challenging one another or talking about what can be with their life. Last week or last 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago, we had Ted off it here on a Saturday and he shared he was one of those guys that that he was a a chemistry major graduating, gonna go to med school. And I said, Ted, is that what the is that God's will for your life? Really? Would you just I just want to ask you, just go on this summer mission that where I had gone. Right? And it was not that it's a magical place, but it's just get away. Go serve God. Pray.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:05]:
And he's just just be in that environment. And he turned around and he got that bug and he wanted to serve God. And and then when I met the parents, they hated me. My son was going to medical school that he met you in that stupid Bible study. Right? But there's several guys like that. But but here's the thing. It's because it was just a joy environment because there was people. And then, you know, when people started to move and graduate and move around and I moved, I moved to the mainland and all those things that sometimes and although I was growing intellectually, when I went to seminary, it was the I grew intellectually in the faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:46]:
I just grew like this, exponential. But joy wise, it was a drain. Part of it was because I wasn't connecting with God relationally, I was connecting with God intellectually. And I could tell you everything about what the scripture said, but I didn't experience that at that moment. That make sense? And so I got so dry spiritually, but I got filled intellectually. That's sometimes a dangerous thing, As long as you don't think that's normal, then you can get out of that. But but it was people that sustained me in that season. You know? Because I'm hanging out with people my age now because as I got older, I'm like 10 years older than these guys.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:39]:
Right? I'm getting like, there's an age difference. And and so I'm hanging out with people my age first time, kinda just doing all that. A lot of these guys, they were doctors, nurses, engineers, and it was good because I was the starving seminary student, missionary, so they would treat me a lot. No. But, you know, so but that the other thing, but it was but that's the thing. It's the relationships that I experienced God. This is what Jesus said about that. Remember when He said verse 11, I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete, he says.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:18]:
But my command is this, what? Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. People I laid down my life for people and that's just kinda was I don't know. Just it was ingrained somehow that to do what Jesus would do and but I had people respond and and that did something for me. I had people that I wasn't the guy just ministering to them. They wanted to minister to them. They wanted to minister to me. And so even though I've been in those seasons where I had to recover, I realized that sometimes, of course, we just need to hang on to God and we need to experience that personally, but sometimes you just need the people in your life to stand with you, to create this environment, a community.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:16]:
Right? Because sometimes you lose your joy. Right? Sometimes you lose your joy. Anybody who heard of Caitlin Ohashi? Anybody have heard of her? She lived down the street. No. I was kidding. No. She doesn't. But she's a gymnast and, kind of Olympic gymnast, the whole thing, female gymnast.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:37]:
And she's she's really well known. In 2019, there was this video of hers that went viral and she just like, banged out this 10 perfect 10 score and her 4 exercises. And you when she's dancing, you can just see the joy on her face and she's doing these amazing moves. And the whole time, her friends, the the, from UCLA, they're, like, cheering like crazy, her teammates, and, oh, screaming. She's doing all these amazing things. And so NPR covered the story and they discovered that Caitlin Ohashi hadn't always felt, like, excited about gymnastics because she'd been doing it since she was a little girl. Right? And how many of you guys that you started sports at, like, 5 years old and then all all of a sudden you got burnt with baseball when you were, like, 14 or whatever. Right? So the thing same thing happened to her.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:34]:
And so in the interview, they interviewed the coach and, Valerie Kondos Field. And she said that when she met Caitlin, she asked her, when were you in love with the sport? And she said, I can't remember. I was 11 years old when I last loved the sport and that she was miserable even though she was winning championships. And she said this that coach Val said, I realized that clearly her love for gymnastics had gone, but that when I if I were to earn her trust and care about her more as a human being than as an athlete who's gotta perform, when if I could bring her into a sense of team and community that maybe something would happen. And you know what happened? Her love for gymnastics returned because she wasn't loved for what she could do. She was loved for who she was. She was not in it by herself, but she was with it with other people. In the video, is so clear, you can see it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:45]:
Just at the end of the routine, everybody's giving the high fives. The scores haven't even come out yet, but then after that, she gets the perfect ten. And it's that kind of environment. You know what is that supposed to be the picture of? The church. Is it because you always perform? No. Is it because you you always do the right thing? No. But it's because the God who loved you and gave grace to you gives grace to them. Right? That's that's where that's supposed to be.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:21]:
And and so God wants this to happen. So the importance of joy to our brains is that this not just you and God, but it's supposed to happen in community and sometimes even when you're suffering. Right? That we weren't meant to suffer alone. That's when it becomes toxic. That's when it becomes sometimes that's when we we get wounded and we get crippled in some ways. But you guys naturally do that when somebody has a loss, like somebody has a surgery. I know Donna when she, her lost both her parents in the same day and everybody's flooding them. It calls and standing with them and bringing food and doing all is that is that mean that, like, oh, I have a joy that I don't miss my parents? No.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:12]:
Right? Because you can have joy with grief. You can still have joy. I I experienced when my dad passed away that I experienced the joy of support of the presence of God though I was grieving. I saw see Donna with that same, Jeff with that same thing. And so here's this aspect, it's that we need people. But sometimes you gotta, you gotta just make yourself available. That's the thing. You see, people can't embrace you if you never let yourself be embraced.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:51]:
Right? People can't people can't connect with you if you you avoid every place that you can get a connection. And so sometimes this is where we ask that sometimes you can connect in a place like this. At the end, we have food and we just talk or sometimes it's like maybe then you go to a smaller group or maybe and greeters and and set up and breakdown guys that they that, the leaders that Barry and Diane, Sugita, they they had a lunch. Like, there was like a full on crazy lunch too, by the way. It was like a huge lunch with people to create that moment to, hey. You know what? Let's just hang out. Let's talk story. Let's see it beyond the, hey, how are you doing good and and get by.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:42]:
And and so there's situations like that, but would you would you move towards people? It becomes part of that. And sometimes the reason why we don't move towards people, because this is what we're hearing in the back of our head. If people really knew me, they wouldn't like me. If people really knew me, if people really knew what I went That's not the devil talking. That's that's your guilt talking. That's your shame talking. That's not God talking because God loves us despite those things, right, despite those things. And when people are able to internalize that love, then then we can give it to somebody else.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:38]:
Right? You guys ever been in love and, like, bad stuff happened, but you just it didn't it didn't totally derail you because you knew when you went home or you knew, you know, when you got together that you guys were somebody still cared about me. They just still wanted to be with me. The hard part about that is that if it's just me and my girlfriend or my boyfriend or my wife or my, you know, whatever it is, my friend, it's hard for that to last, just the 2 like that. And we wanna try to recreate the feeling. Right? So that's the thing. If you're trying to hold on to that feeling when it's not a feeling, it's the standing with that creates the feeling. You don't you don't chase the feelings. You create the environment in which the feelings can form.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:37]:
And so this is what he's saying in this aspect. It's like when you see someone and their eyes sparkles and they're so glad that you're there, that's when the feeling starts getting engendered. And sometimes that's a choice and sometimes that's what we reach out to. Now, I'm gonna ask us that we're gonna practice this. I want you guys to practice this, that to recover your joy because I was at a breakout session at a conference a couple years ago and they did this exercise and I was surprised how, how it impacted me. And in the thing they just asked, like, okay, think of a memory where you feel grateful and you felt loved and connected with God. And the and it's not just think about like that God is loving. It's not think about how He's forgiving or how he's present.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:32]:
I want you to think of a memory, right, where you felt like that. So I'm gonna ask you guys, think of a memory like that. If you don't have a memory like that because some of us don't have a memory like that because maybe you've intellectualized your faith. Right? It maybe you'd never experienced that from God yet. So if that's you, then I want you to just read this verse that's in the in the next point, right, where it says to practice experiencing God relationally, that where it says this. Let's read that verse. Can we read that in Psalm 671? May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us. And what is that saying? It's saying that when you think about God, right, would you see that he is gracious toward you and that he wants to bless you and that he when he's looking at you, that his face lights up.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:38]:
And I want you, if you don't have a memory that you can access, right, and I don't care if that memory was like 20 years ago or that memory was today, but if as long as you have some memory, you can access. But if you don't, I want you to do me a favor that when we close our eyes, we're gonna close our eyes in a minute, that I want you just to imagine, like right now, that God is looking at you and he's reaching out his hand toward you and he's smiling and he's saying, take my hand because we're gonna be friends, Yeah. If you don't have it by me. Why is that? Because is that what this verse is saying basically, Psalm 67:1? That's what God's promise is. That's what God's word. That's the expression of his heart. So I want you guys to do me a favor. Close your eyes, and I want you to think about that that time and I want you to think about it, but don't just access, oh yeah, I have a memory.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:44]:
I want you to relive that memory right now. Okay. You can if you wanna just still be in that moment, you can still be in that moment. But if not, you can open your eyes. I'm gonna ask this. How many of you, if you really you relive that moment, how many of you feel different after doing that than before? Raise your hand. Yeah. You literally feel different.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:43]:
Right? Do some of us do you literally feel something in your body? It's like lighter, like some people experience it different, like it's some people, like, when the Spirit of God comes in there, you just you feel it like, oh. Right? Now ask yourself this, what was God trying to teach you today by accessing that memory? Maybe the fact that he's still gonna see you through, maybe the fact that you're still loved, maybe the fact is that I know you think it's going off the rails, but I got you in the grip. I I don't know. That that's the same thing. Right? And and this is if you do that, you remember that you know, when I I did that, I go like, Brad, I walked throughout the rest of that day not just remembering that moment, but experiencing the same joy. Because that's the same God. I'm the same God. I'm still in need of that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:05]:
But there's other memories that you have. And you know what? But this is when it doesn't work generally, when you gotta think of the word. You gotta think about how God is, kind and then you try to think about like that because it's not a memory. It's a different part of your brain. It's not where you get relationally connected. And so think of that memory. And so you can think of other memories. Now, there are times that you focus on the truth of the scripture And this tells you, even if you never had this experience before, but it tells you what it's like that God's face is looking at you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:45]:
He's shining. He wants to bless you, protect you, and keep you, and that, you know what, He wants you to experience His peace. And then you imagine God as that because that is what he wants you to imagine. That's why he told us. Right? So sometimes you might not have the memory, but you read this aspect about who God is and how he does it. And he says that when you do that, you know what happens? You start feeling different because you start experiencing his presence just all over again. And so if you wanna recover your joy, you gotta keep seeking after the one who who made you, who called you. And then this is what he says.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:32]:
His joy can give you strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength, that he wants you to be filled, not with your joy, not with the joy that just says, I hope I get that thing. I hope it works out this way. That's there's not a problem that you have those kind of joys. It's just that you need more than that to get your joy becomes full, it says. Complete. That's just partial joy. That's the joy of the world, but he says the joy of the Lord, his presence.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:06]:
And then sometimes the other parts is that make move towards people. Let people embrace you. You gotta if I'm not saying that walk up to people and say, hi. My name is Glenn and then I'm a alcoholic. I mean, like, that's not like kinda like that's not you just introduce yourself like that. You can do that in a group meeting. Right? But I don't do that. Right? But you you take a risk.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:28]:
You take a risk that when the time is right, you you just share a little bit about yourself. Right? And you know what? You'll probably find in in in a probably in a faith environment where people are trying to move in the same direction. I think what we tend to find is that you'll be accepted. You're gonna be encouraged. People will say, man, I I know what you mean. I've been there myself. Right? But take those steps to find a connection, and what you'll find is that your joy will recover. Amen? Amen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:00:10]:
Okay. Let's close this time in a word of prayer. Father, I thank you that there are times that we just have to persevere and endure. Lord, we know that Jesus had to endure on the cross. But you said that it wasn't just His will that endured. It wasn't just His faith that endured, but He saw something in the future, Lord. He saw us. And that something even in the midst of all of the shame and all of the pain that He was going through, when the sin of the world was poured out on him, when it was horrible, there's something that would make him endure, and that was us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:01:05]:
And Lord, that was me. That was you. And he says that that kind of a joy doesn't just make you crazy happy all the time, but it gives you strength. Because we know that life also has other stuff and it has disappointments and it it has frustrations and it and it has conflict at times. But that joy sustains and strengthens God's joy. So, father, I pray that, lord, that today we would recover our joy because we're not here to perform. God, we're that you call us to be worshipers before you call us to be ministers. Lord, you call us to be sons and daughters before you call us to be people who do the ministry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:02:02]:
Lord, that you call us to know the lord of the work before we do the work of the lord. So today, we just come as sons and daughters before you. And father, we thank you that your eye is upon us and your face is turned toward us and you want to bless us, and you are. And you want to protect us, and you are. We're thankful. But thank you, Lord, that your face shines. We wanna see you, and we thank you for your peace. If you've never said yes to Jesus before, I wanna paraphrase a pretty well known scripture.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:02:49]:
It's found in the book of Revelation. And he says this, if you've never said yes to Jesus or maybe you have but He seems a 1000000 miles away right now because maybe you've been kinda off doing your own thing. This is what Jesus said. He says, hey, I'm standing at the door of your life, and I'm knocking. He says, if you trust me enough to let me in, that you recognize that it's your creator, It's the one who's loved you. And if you're willing to surrender your life to me and you're willing to trust Me with your life to lead you and guide you, He says this, then you and Me, we'll be friends. We'll be close. We'll do life together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:03:47]:
And that you'll know my presence and you'll know my forgiveness and you'll know My grace, but just just open the door. And if that's you and you've never done that before, just tell them. And in your heart, would you just say, God, I'm surrendered to You today. God, I'm I'm seeking You today. God, I'm turning from what I know is wrong today, and I'm putting my trust in you. He says he'll come in. Father, that's our prayer. Lord, thank you for receiving us as we surrender to you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:04:29]:
And, lord, thank you that you take, lord, our guilt and our shame, and you throw it into the sea of your forgetfulness because you paid for it at the cross. And, lord, would you lead us today and reveal yourself to us today? Strengthen us today so we might walk in your ways, that we might walk with you and that we might see you. In Jesus name, God's people say amen. Amen. If you said yes to Jesus today, he heard you today. Can we just say congratulations to those folks? God bless you guys. Have a great evening and the rest of the weekend.