Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:01]:
You know, this this evening and I I was preparing a message and, for the weekend, and I sometimes when it comes to these things, I don't know what to really talk about, but we're grateful for the past. We're grateful for the God's faithfulness over 25 years. At the same time, we know that we need to be focused on the future. The past is a launching point for what God wants to do in the future. And so, although we are grateful and we look back, we never want to be the guys that just sit around in the rocking chair, you know, maybe till one day when Tim and I are like we're we're old now, but like when we're really old. You know what I mean? Like we're but we cannot walk, okay? But you know what? I want to lead the Bible study. When I'm 80 something years old, and maybe I cannot go do the other things that I can do now, I still want to be that guy that that takes in the new believers. I still want to be that guy who believes in a in a young adult.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:02]:
I still want to be that guy who talks to teenagers. I still want to be that guy who talks to the the young married guy that, yeah, it's hard now, but but hang on, because if you don't quit, it gets better. Right? And and so it's important. It's logical to think about looking for. It's biological. We're wired that way. Right? Because you got, what, 2 eyes. Which way is it pointing? Forward.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:26]:
You got 2 ears. Which way is that pointing? It's basically shaped to here forward. Right? You get one hold on the o'kole. Which way is that facing? Right? So we're supposed to be forward focused. Right? Not back even biology tells us that. But sometimes this what I see is that there are defining moments in everybody's life. There's defining moments in the church, and you don't always know when the defining moments are gonna happen. Because you don't just wake up and generally go, hey, today is just the defining moment of my life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:01]:
But sometimes what happens is they come when you least expect it, but it's the days that God has led us to. For some of us this evening, I just want to remind you that let's embrace our defining moments as we move forward, and that for you as well, there will be defining moments. And and as I just look back in at my life, I I changed the message today, like like 4 hours ago, 5 hours ago. So if it seems disjointed, blame God. Nah. Just kidding. But I'll say this. These are lessons that I've learned, but I see it over and over and over in the scriptures.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:44]:
And and the first one is this, I think it's just let me give you there's 5 things tonight. I think what I found is that defining go all in. You know, sometimes we're, we're like 1 foot in, 1 foot out, 1 foot in, 1 foot out, you know, then we test the water first. But that day, you step out of your comfort zone, and you move forward. Then you come from that place where you experience the grace of God. Then you're saying, God, man, I I need you to make me stronger. I need you to go deeper. I need you to help me to love more.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:20]:
Right? But sometimes we get nervous about going all in, right? Because you guys ever hedge your bets, right? So to be honest, we kind of hedge our bets. We have some plans that in case tomorrow is crazy, right, that we have the cafeteria inside, we can still do. Inside here, we we're all good, but but we have different things, but here's the thing is that sometimes that if you're not careful, you hedge your bets so much that that you you never step in, you never go all in. Right? And you know, I I remember that when before we got married, you know, that I I, I was sitting with my friend and we were talking, and and he goes like, do you have any nervousness about this? And this wasn't just before I got married, but it was a little bit before. And I said, yeah, you know, we have such different backgrounds. You know, I mean, we're both Japanese, but she's the kind, hontonie, like she's like from Japan, the real Japanese, not the kind like me, like third generation, cannot even speak the language, and and the, you know, the background, you know, like, man, I grew up like pretty poor. Her dad was a dentist, you know. So it's very different, and you know what they're saying.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:27]:
I would just like kind of listing a few things. And I used to think, like, man, I don't know how we're gonna navigate some of these changes. Like, as a as a pastor, I don't know if I can kind of keep her in the way that she was raised, you know, the lifestyle. You know what I'm talking about? And so I had that I did have a little bit of that fear. And sometimes we have fears about, like, things and questions about that with God and and the things that he's calling you that you're nervous. Can I do? Is it how? What about this to happen? And all those things. But you know what Jesus said? Jesus says in John 16, as he's talking to the disciples, and he's telling them things about what's to come and what's happening because he's gonna go to the cross soon. And he said this, he goes in John 16:23, can we just look into what it says? It says, In that day, let's say, in that day, you will no longer ask me anything.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:19]:
For very truly, I tell you, my father will give you whatever you ask in my name. And you know, the thing is, after I went all in and we got married, you know, I never had a question whether we would make it. Because when I really got to know her, when I really you know, you you know, but then you just kind of there's things you don't know when you're not married, right? And then you go like, but when I saw her and I experienced her, and then I just go, I don't have I don't have no questions anymore. And I wonder, that's how we're gonna be when we stand before God, and when you make that choice and you go all in. Sometimes you have those questions. But you know what? When we go to heaven, sometimes we say, I'm gonna ask this. I'm gonna ask this. I'm gonna do that right when I go to heaven.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:02]:
To be honest, when you get to heaven, you're not gonna have any questions. Because you're just gonna know. You're just gonna go, God, I mean, I didn't understand all that, but I when I see you with my own eyes, how good you are, how wise you are, how mighty you are. You know what? None of us are going to have any questions. The atheist who says they're going to shake their hands at God and say, what? You're not going to do that. He says, you know what? In that moment, they're going to bow before him. Right? Because every knee and every tongue is going to bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. And sometimes, you know, when we come to that in in this day, you know, we we need to be a people that don't let our biggest fears and our biggest regrets hinder us from going all in.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:49]:
You know, sometimes I read this article, and you might have read it too, where you talk to people, like, in their 100 and the centurions, and you say, hey, you guys made it. You guys have really kind of outlasted everybody, some keys and wisdoms in, to living a good life and having enjoying your life? And and one of the the things that came up was that you don't regret, they say, the things that you did as much as the things that you didn't. Right? Because sometimes, we were too busy. Sometimes, we were too nervous. Sometimes, we were too invested in other things. And he says, that, you know, the things that you did and, you know, we all make mistakes along the way and, you know, we can change, we can repent, and we can grow, and we can learn from those, but he says the things that you'll regret is the things that we didn't do. So let's not leave the things on the table that God has for us. Right? Let's go all in in the 26th year.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:46]:
Let's embrace, because that's gonna be the defining moment when you say, you know what? Lord, I I you know, like, whenever I've just gone back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, how many days, how many months, how many weeks? How many years have I wasted? Because I wanna go all in with you. Right? That's a defining moment. But, you know, every person that when you go through things, you know, you get your ups and your downs. We have our successes and our wins, and we have our reversals. There's days that things don't go our way. Right? There's times that we've lost. There's times I've made a mistake. There's been things that have blown up.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:19]:
Right? That things that didn't happen, that what we had planned. When COVID hit, you know, the first thing that I thought was, shucks, this thing is blowing up Easter. Like, you know, I could have thought about other things, right? It's like people worried about their health and all that. I was worried about that kind of thing, but you know, the thing is that sometimes it just don't work the way that you want. But, you know, when, I was asked to, come I was asked that, hey, Glenn. Where do you wanna plant, the church that you're you're you're really we we know that you're stated to plant a church is when I was on staff at New Hope Oahu. And I sit here in Kapolei. And some of you guys hear their story, but, like, I said, yes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:00]:
Anywhere else you wanna go? I'm I'm set. And back then, I was living in Waikele, and I would look out from my balcony looking out towards Kapolei, and I would be praying. I'd be praying for the area. I'd be praying for the church that would happen. And and then he goes, okay. Well, that's that's great. And then the next thing I know that there's another guy they had, and they they were gonna send him to Kapolei. And, you know, no explanation, no not.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:23]:
But the other thing was basically, I I hear was they wanted a guy who had had experience. And this one guy, Alex, he had already planted in the mainland and, you know, a church and had come to be trained at New Hope. And and so they they gave it to Alex. And and, you know, we had been really committed, and so we were already looking for a house to buy in the area. We had been looking. So I gave my, I gave Alex, who's a friend of mine as well, and I gave him our realtor. I says, hey. You know, she's she knows the area real well.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:55]:
Why don't you just work with her? Because she's shown us a ton of houses. And then, you know, later after that, the discipleship pastors asked me what I was gonna do. And because they knew it was discouraging, right? And I didn't know. I said, I don't know. You know, just off the top of my head, I was like, maybe you go to Maui because back then, there was no new hope on Maui. Right? And maybe go back to L. A, Orange County area because there were people, friends in the church that I we helped plant there that was calling me to come to LA, come to Orange County and plant a church there. So maybe maybe you'll go there, right? Because I was more committed to God and his kingdom than my plans and my kingdom.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:35]:
And about a week later, Pastor Wayne comes and, you know, we find out that Alex, before he signed the offer to buy the house in Kapolei, just got cold feet. And we're not cold feet. He just realized he goes like, I'm not called to here. I'm called to go back to Montana. Right? And, you know, isn't that like a typical thing, the Korean guy from LA, and but he went. And then Pastor Wayne came to me and he says, Glenn, you must have been praying. And I was. But it was there that we came here and you know, in that moment though, before that moment, some of my friends were wondering, are you gonna bail because it didn't go your way? This is another defining moment when you don't quit.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:26]:
When you don't quit because we've all had our reversals. We've all had things that not work out our way. You know, a number of years ago, a lot of you guys know we were sued by an atheist the first time in the nation that they that they could find where he sues churches basically just for using the facility state government facilities. 1 of 5 churches, like lucky to be chosen. Yeah. Sometimes I mean, oh my gosh. And, you never wanna be the 1st in that kind of a thing, and and later we lost our location in Kapolei and so we had to move back to Waipahu. And people would always ask the question, what question is that that you guys get asked? How come you guys are called, you know, Kapolei but you in Waipahu? Right? Like it's like and but we we came here, and that weekend that weekend, we lost a 100 people that one weekend.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:16]:
8 minutes away, we lost a 100 people. And, but you know what? We didn't quit. Hallelujah. We kept going. We kept serving. We kept reaching out. Right? We kept doing what we could. We we outfitted the place, and and God saw us through.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:32]:
Right? And we're gonna keep going because the defining moment of not quitting is because we will be resilient. Right? And if you don't feel resilient now you know what? Resilience can be developed. Resilience happens when when we encounter frustration, pain, and we say this, this is true. It it sucks right now, but if I get through this, I know there's something better on the other side. Right? And so this is what the scripture says in Hebrews 12. Let's read what it says. Let us strip off every weight that slows us down. You guys ever get slowed down? Right? Yeah.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:12]:
Sometimes I get slowed down, man. I I eat too much. Man, I'm slowed down. I don't wanna go to I don't wanna do my thing now. I get tired. Right? So sometimes we we get picked up bad habits. Right? We get everybody gets slowed down, but he says, especially the sin that so easily can trip us up. Then he says this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:28]:
Let's read together. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. And we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its shame, and now he seated in a place of honor besides God's throne. And what is the point of that? He's saying this. It's like Jesus had to go through it. Right? Jesus, when he was in the garden, he says, Lord, if this be possible, can this cup pass for me? But what did God say? The father said, this cup is not gonna pass. Sometimes you gotta go through it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:09]:
And this is what happens though, that right now he's seated at the place of honor. Right? Because he didn't quit. Because he didn't quit on you. He didn't quit on me. That's why we're here. Right? Because our God's a faithful God and that what does that mean? It's that he's not a quitting God. Right? And so this is what he's saying. He wants to develop in us this ability to go through it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:32]:
Right? At times, we don't quit because when you don't quit, you because if you quit at year 1, year 2 never comes. Right? You quit at year 24, year 25 never comes. So don't let the circumstances tell you what your call is. Let God tell you what your call is. Don't let your emotions tell you at times what you should do. Have you ever had your emotions telling you what you should do? Man, you wanna yell at that guy. Right? You wanna tell this person off. You wanna, like hopefully, you don't just listen to those voices.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:03]:
Right? But we all have them at times. We all have them. But but we let the call of God. And there's been times I've had to hold off on making an emotional decision. You know, that pastors that sometimes they're famous for at times the low point of the week is often a Monday. Right? Because they look back on what they could have done. They did look back on what they could have said, and they look at and we kinda you guys ever do that? Like Monday morning yeah. We do we do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:30]:
But they said this you know, one of the things I learned is I never make an emotional decision until that kind of a thing that can change my life can change other people's lives till I'm not so emotional. Right? So I can hear what is God that's saying. And, you know, the thing is that we all have fears too. Right? You guys have fears? Yes. Right. I have fears. Right? I I have fears of heights. Right? I have a fear of heights.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:56]:
So do you guys ever go jump the rock at, Waimea Bay? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Right? There's been times I have walked up that hill, walked up that that rock, and I've been looking and it's taken me like half an hour to make the jump. Oh, no. No. Go ahead, brother. You you first. Right? You know, one of those and it's like because I I have a fear of heights. If you have a fear of heights, it's just called wisdom. No.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:20]:
Just kidding, but like a right? I have a fear of heights. Right? You know what else I have a fear of? I have a fear. I I have a fear sometimes that when I'm swimming in an open ocean, and you know when you cannot see and it's like little turbid and cloudy and I start hearing in the back of my head. You know what I'm talking about? We all have fears. Right? Some of them are unfounded, and some of them maybe there's a little bit. Right? But but when you don't let your fear hold you back, that will be a defining moment. You know, early on that, kinda like after the 1st year, actually, you know, I I had gone on vacation, and when I came back, there was a situation that had developed with some leaders and, you know, like this one guy was interested in another leader and, you know, great, you know, godly, cute, young, you know, single mom and the whole thing. The only problem was the guy was married, right? And so when I came home, you know, somebody told me, hey, maybe you need to talk to this person.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:31]:
And so I it's not the most comfortable conversation, but I gotta, you know, deal with that. And so I had this conversation and, you know, and I could see he was just lost in his emotion. Right? He's lost in his emotion. Sometimes if you just let that thing not dictate your future, then you make the best decision later. You'll make some correction and and so I did say that. I talked to him, like, you know, like, you know, I'm not asking you to go and, you know, everything will be perfect, but you got to break the thing you know that you ought not to be doing right now. Right? And I could see he was still lost in his emotions, so I said this. And and even if later on things will go, you know, string out and then you end up getting divorced or whatever it is, because I cannot make anybody do anything.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:12]:
Right? But here's what I said, that if you get together, I'm not gonna do the wedding because I'm trying to put a little leverage on this guy. Right? And just to to bring him to his senses. And then he promptly they both leave the church and go down go to another church down the street. Now I I'm saying that because sometimes you can learn the wrong lessons from certain things. Because you know what happened? I began to develop a fear. I began to develop a little bit of a fear about that if I say the truth too strongly, people will leave. Right? You know, one of the most painful things that happen in a church is is is is departings. Right? We all wanna welcome people, but we don't wanna release people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:53]:
Right? And and so some of those things happen, and I I began to say so I don't wanna I I started to kinda almost feel like I don't wanna say the hard truths, but but then I became convinced that that sometimes you can learn those wrong lessons, and I thought this is the wrong lessons because I could see our culture changing so rapidly that I'm either gonna mirror the culture or I'm gonna speak to the culture, the truth of God. The truth of God. Right? I'm gonna hold us to what God says rather than to what the world says. And and, you know, the thing is that we've had to, at at times say things. I had people get up and walk out because I shared simply what this said, and people were uncomfortable. And here's what I have learned is that that this is what it says in Proverbs 2925, the fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. And so I came to the point where I realized is that I would rather that people leave because I spoke the truth in love, yeah, I spoke the truth in love, rather than for God to leave because I never spoke his truth in love. Right? And so sometimes you gotta don't let your fear hold you back.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:21]:
Right? And, you know, the thing is that because we all although we are all loved in the place that we are, we need to be reminded that all of us are in this process of growth and transformation. Right? Now how many of you guys know that there's growth and transformation ahead for you? Right? Because this as good as you are now, this is not as great as it gets. Right? God has better things in store for you and for you to be a better person. Right? Like, we we have a bunch of people in our in our church family that have had children recently. Right? And and they're all in diapers and, like, so Jasmine and Josh, right, in November. They're still they're still in diapers. The Kanojos, right, baby Sonny, they're coming tomorrow. They're still in diapers.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:07]:
It's like 3 he's, like, 2 months old. Right? We had one, Jaylen and Elijah. They just had a baby today, this morning. Right? Can we just say congratulations to those guys? And you know, they are gonna be well in, practiced in getting up, and husbands too, and changing the diaper. Right? Changing the diaper. And there's nothing that they wouldn't do for their little babies right now. Nothing they wouldn't do. And when it comes even to diapers, I've talked to so many people, it's like, brother, I cannot do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:42]:
Right? And then after a while after a while, right, if, you know, they're, you know, they they're engaged, then they end up doing that. And if you realize nobody loves doing it, but you just don't care after a while, right? You just don't care. And, but here's what would happen. What would happen if at 14, Leah says to you, mom, dad, I had some Zippy's chili today, and you know what that does to me. Buckle up because it's gonna be a rough night when you guys gotta change my diaper. Right? You guys would be you guys would be saying, no. No. No.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:14]:
No. No. Right? This is not that's not how it works. Right? Because although god loves us as we are, that we're supposed to move down, the sense of growing and developing. And sometimes it takes you know what it takes? Facing our fears. Because what you'll find is that god is greater than your greatest fear. Right? And even that thing that if you go through it sometimes it sucks. I'll be honest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:40]:
Sometimes I've faced my greatest fears and it sucked at the moment, but it didn't kill me, and it made me stronger. And that's your defining moment because you'll never get to the defining moment sometimes if you let that fear hold you back. Right? So let's embrace our defining moments. This is the 4th thing I wanna say is that when you don't wait to become what you wanna be because sometimes, you know, I've always I wanted to do more. I've wanted to be more. I've wanted to grow more, but, you know, sometimes it's it's it's hard. You know, when we, you know, we started a church, I I tended to have a fair amount of experience. I was already a part planting a couple churches and we'd seen a lot of different things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:26]:
I'd been a missionary. I went to bible college or seminary and all that kind of a thing, but sometimes I what I noticed is I had a lot of experience, but there's sometimes that you just cannot rely on your experience. Right? Sometimes it's not your wisdom. Sometimes it's not the thing that you figured out. It's not your tricks. It's not your skills that's gonna do these things, and so that what I realized is that God moves by the by the hand of prayer. Right? That if we want to see God do great things, we ought to be a praying people because sometimes what happens when you don't pray, but you're very skilled, you get to the place where your skills don't produce the fruit that you know it could produce given the right circumstances. Why is that? Because the hand of God is not moved by your skills.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:13]:
God doesn't need the skills. He needs the people of God to trust him and believe for him and pray to him, right, and and ask him to get the glory. Right? And so, you know, but I wasn't really a man of prayer. I mean, I would pray. I would pray before I I I work a message. I would be at prayer at different moments, but I wouldn't say, like, Jesus. I I was convicted. I read the scriptures where it says, you know, that in Jesus, he goes early morning that he was out praying as was his custom.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:45]:
And if people had wanted to put a definition on me that what is my custom, it might be to read the Bible. It might be to, you know, set some time to be quiet before God, but it wasn't I wouldn't say this that that any like my wife probably wouldn't have said. My kids might not have said. That was my custom to pray. And so you know what they said? Is that we gotta change starting with me. That's why we started doing 21 days of prayer. Right? That's when we started doing that, and we've been doing it for the last 12 years. And it's not because I was such a great prayer warrior.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:20]:
And when you know what? We started doing in the beginning of the year, what we do is we pray and fast too. Right? Are you excited about that? I hated it in the beginning. I didn't wanna give up meat. I didn't wanna give up, like so I just like I don't wanna give up coffee. I don't wanna, like I would hated it in the beginning. You know what hated actually? Was my flesh hated it. And then what I realized was that, man, I just needed to live out of my spirit. And so we didn't wait till my flesh said this is the time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:53]:
We just jumped in. And as a result, we just see guys like Chad and, his son, Elua, for the first time, 18 years old, got up and spoke. Tim and, like, just the crew that had had shared been sharing throughout the 21 days. You guys have done an amazing job. But you know what? We wouldn't have had that unless we just said, you know, we're not gonna wait till then. We're gonna step into it. And then you know what it does? It trains us, and we get better at it. And so can we just say thanks to our 21 days crew? You have been amazing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:26]:
And so first Timothy, he says this. Don't waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, train yourself. Let's say train yourself.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:35]:
Train yourself.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:36]:
Right? For what? To be godly. Right? See, godliness doesn't just happen. It's a it's a result of training ourselves to be godly. Physical training is good, he says, but training for godliness is much better and promising benefits in this life as well as the life to come. And, you know, sometimes, we've invested as a result. Like, when we started our missions deal to be honest, because I had been a missionary, I always thought about it by always, like, the I always wanted to focus on the church first. Let's let's focus on what's happening here. Let's focus on what's happening in our community, but but there's always a part.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:13]:
I I wanted to be a part of something that's happening outside, and, and particularly in Japan. My wife is from Japan. I've taken kids on missions in Japan. We've seen great God do amazing things in leading, like, 20 something people one summer when we were in Akita, Japan when I was working with Campus Crusade. Nobody saw that kind of a thing. It was just a move of God, and I just I wanted to be a of that. And our mother church, they were doing stuff in Japan. But to be honest, it was mostly couple speakers and guys who would dance or they would do drama or they would sing or whatever.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:51]:
That's the kind of guys that they would take on the team. And so I talked to the guys and say, hey. You know what? Like, I don't care if I gotta pay my own way. I don't care. It's like, I don't care what I do. What you guys gonna do is like and I we we already the church is already running, but I wanted to to go. Right? And I said, just go. Be part of the team.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:07]:
I wanted to do something to reach people in Japan. Less than 1% Christian. Right? How many of us know that sometimes when you look at statistics, they tell you something that this ought not to be like this. That's what the the sometimes statistics when we hear about violent statistics out in the leeward area, right, in the Waianae area, you know what it's supposed to tell us? It's not supposed to be like this. Right? So we'll take some steps. What do we do to engage? Right? So that's what I'm saying. And and you know what? They I never got the call. So you know what? We went Philippines instead.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:45]:
Right? And we started to go to the Philippines, and we helped rebuild after typhoon, and we we started a program that helped people change their life by doing a microloan, things that people said would never work in Philippines because I don't know if you guys know, there's a kind of reputation in Philippines that if you give people money, you're never gonna see that again. Right? And, but and this is Filipino telling me this. Like, I don't think this is going to work, but we put in safeguards. And you know what it did? It changed people's lives. And and we started doing different things and going to Indonesia. And then when Indonesia got shut down, invited to go to Myanmar. And I couldn't go, so I told Tim, hey, Tim. You know what you should do? No.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:27]:
But, we would love for you to go and go check it out for us. And Tim went, and he saw the need. And he said, Glenn, you gotta go. You gotta see these people who love Jesus, who sacrificed so much to care for orphans, to raise them, to lead them to Christ. And and so we went, and and that was the beginnings that led us to start the Esther Project in Myanmar. And so that's why now 600 some orphans now. Right? Is that the current number? Six something? Yeah. And so that that are being at times fed, being educated, being trained, being shown some skills.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:16]:
Right? And that we've supported them through COVID, a revolution. Right? And we're still there. And it's like, to be honest, it's gotten worse since the last time we talked about it. But guess what? We didn't wait. We just said, this is the time. This is the place. We're just going. And, God, would you would you help us to become that that person that can make a difference in the world? So sometimes you're gonna find yourself that you're not the person that you wanna be.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:49]:
You know what? Start moving to become the person that you wanna be. And then you find you have to grow. You're changed. You'll grow into that. Don't wait to prepare, you know, until something magical happens. Start now. Do me a favor. Turn to your neighbor and say, you can start now.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:10]:
Okay? You know, but sometimes sometimes the reason why we miss, I think, defining moments is because, like, you're like me. Like, you we learn sometimes the wrong lesson, like I said earlier, and we go this. I I'm never doing that again. But you gotta be careful what you say. Because of the lawsuit, when we were in the public school, I said, you know, I'm never gonna meet in another school again. And that's why we were at West, right, that we were in this kind of facilities that we control and we were waiting for a new building. We were looking for something in Kapolei because I said I'm never doing that again, but but you know the thing is that sometimes you make a vow and a promise that God understands why you make it, but it's just not promise that god understands why you make it, but it's just not his will. Right? And there's been times I've said, god, I'm not doing that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:59]:
God, I'm not doing that. Not unless you do this. And you know what? God God doesn't say, oh, that makes me so joyful. No. He doesn't say that. Right? No. He just says, oh, really? Oh, really? We'll see. Right? And and so here's the thing, you know, how do we get to that place is because the things that we looked at just would would get stalled or would dry up and and all these things, and so we just said, what's open? Ho'okele Elementary is open.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:26]:
Right? But you know what I had to do? I had to humble myself before God first. I just had to humble myself before God. God, I said I never, but sorry. Sorry I said that. Right? How many of you guys have said that to your spouse? I'm never doing that again. Be careful what you say never to because sometimes goes God goes, oh, really? Right? And, and you know that this is Jesus tells a story about a man who had 2 sons. Right? And one says, I'm gonna go out and work in the vineyard today, and he never went. Right? And then one said, I'm not going.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:02]:
But then as the day went on he realized it's best to obey my father. And then he says, so he goes and he does it. And so Jesus tells the story. He says, so which of the 2 obeyed the father? He says, you know, hey, the one who actually went. Right? And it wasn't easy because we had been comfortable. There's people that this room is a comfortable room. It's not the biggest room. It's a comfortable room.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:24]:
Right? And and this is the the reaction, the number one reaction that we get when people come, when they come from the outside and they come inside, they go like, wow. It was way nicer than I thought inside. You know, it's kind of a double edged sword. In other words, this area doesn't look that great, but the inside looks good. Right? Because you know what? Because this is god has this habit, and we wanna copy that habit. Whatever he touches, he makes better. Amen. Right? Yeah.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:51]:
Hallelujah. This place looked like a dump when we got here, but it's looking better. O'okele Elementary looks pretty good already, right, when we get in there. It's it's a nice place, but guess what? I believe God wants to make it better. That's why we invested in that thing. Because when God touched your life and my life, guess what he did? He made it better, didn't He? Right? He met you where you were, but He made it better. Like and sometimes you don't even think it can be better. You know one of those things is, I'll just kinda not necessarily close with this, but I was in high school I took foreign language.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:28]:
It was a requirement for the program that I wanted to do in college, and so I took foreign language and I went into Japanese class, on the 1st day of school. And I went in and I learned that there's 4 different writing systems that you can communicate in Japanese using the English letters that we have. Right? And so you can write, you know, using English letters, and then you can use this thing called katakana, which is for foreign words, and then you can use this thing called hiragana, and then there's the characters the Chinese characters they call kanji. And I said, so wait. I raised my hand. So we're gonna have to learn four writing systems to communicate Japanese? I said, you will. It's an amazing thing. You're gonna learn this in the course of this year.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:13]:
And so I promptly left the class and dropped it and took German. Because at least it's the same alphabet. Right? Like, and sometimes the words is close to English and all that. Please don't test me on German because, I it's probably hard to remember anything. But but you know the thing? I always said this. It's too hard. Japanese is too hard. In seminary, I took Greek for 2 years, and it wasn't that hard, but God really helped me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:39]:
And I took Hebrew for a year and a half, and that was super foreign. I know enough to use tools to be in the original language. I never learned Japanese, not in a structured way. Guess who I married? Right. The most beautiful girl from Japan. I married this and it's like but every time I would go and my mom used to tease me. She would be like she would say something. She would speak in Japanese and she says, oh, do you know what I said? Not really.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:06]:
Right? I would get bits and pieces. She goes like, oh, all this time, Glenn, you you don't know Japanese. I love you too, mom. But no talk stink like that or no. No. No. But, like and so I never learned Japanese. But you know what I I did was this year when I went, I had a hard time communicating with my mother-in-law because my wife was busy helping with all the moving and and all that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:33]:
We we spend a lot of time together as a family, but I cannot have a deep conversation. I can have a little conversations with people. I can have little conversations, but I kinda get deep heart to heart conversations because I don't know enough. Right? I cannot say it like that. But when I came home and I had tried before and tried before and failed, tried and stopped, tried and stopped, tried and stopped, but this time that I just said, I'm gonna try a different thing. And so I went on my phone and I got this thing called Duolingo. Anybody ever heard of that? Yeah. Right? I am 40 days straight on Duolingo.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:11]:
On the thing, it says I'm number 1 on my stuff. Like, hey. I like that. Right? No. But the thing is that you know what? Sometimes you humble yourself, then you can fulfill your call. It doesn't matter if you tried and you failed in the past. It doesn't matter if it's blown up in the past. You know what? This is the thing that we we humble ourselves and say, God, I knew I didn't do it well and all this stuff, but because, yeah, there's a higher call.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:39]:
Because I want my mother-in-law to know Jesus. Right? Because when I go to Japan, I wanna be able to have some heart to heart conversations, maybe not this year, but maybe in the next year. Right? Maybe in some that when we're there, I wanna be able to communicate to people in a language that that they understand, not just make them transition in the language I understand. Right? Am I willing to learn? And so why is that? Because the needs of the world, as big as they are, sometimes you and I, we can feel insignificant. Right? But this is one of the things that I learned that is it's worth it. And I'll just close with this story, and maybe you guys are familiar with it. But there was a boy that or a man was walking on the beach one day, and it was low tide, and and the tide had pulled itself out, and the the the shore was covered with starfish. And, he saw a boy down the the beach, and, as he was there, he he see the boy stop down and pick something up and throw it in the ocean.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:44]:
And and he was wondering, what the heck is that boy doing? As he got closer and closer, he began to notice the boy was picking up starfish that were exposed, and he would he was just throwing them in the ocean. And and so the boy, the man finally got to the place where he met up with the boy, and he asked the boy this. He said, son, what are you what are you doing? And he says, oh, I'm picking up starfish and throw them in the ocean. And he said, oh, I can see that. But look at this beach. Look how big this is, and look how many thousands of starfish that are on this beach. Do you think it really matters that you throw the starfish back in the ocean? And then and the boy picked up 1, and he threw it in the ocean, and he says, it mattered to this one. And you know what? You and I, we were the starfish stuck on the beach at different seasons of our life, And Jesus came, and maybe he came in the form of a friend.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:48]:
Maybe he came in the form of a you watched a a podcast or you watched a show on TV or somebody handed you something to read. But he picked you up and he threw you into the sea of his love, of his forgiveness. And you know what? There's so many more that are out there. It mattered to us, and guess what? To everyone we touch, it matters to them. So the year 26, we're just as committed to love, to reach, to make disciples. Right? To know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. Amen? Amen. And Halal has, something they wanted to share with us this evening, and then let's welcome them all.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:21]:
Hey, can we, close this part in a word of prayer and just present ourselves before him. And maybe you're in this place where maybe God's speaking to you and saying, are you willing to embrace a defining moment in your life? Are you ready to go all in? Are you ready to say, I'm not gonna let my fear hold me back from stepping to the places where you called me to be? God, I'm not gonna wait to prepare and make sure everything is all perfect, and then I'll start training. I wanna start now. Maybe some of us we're gonna humble ourselves. I don't know what it is, but if that's you this morning and you're this evening and you're saying, god, I I wanna step into the defining moment this year, that whatever life has been like, you can only move forward. But if you're moving forward and you're saying, god, I I'm willing to be changed in that process. I'm willing to grow. I'm willing to be healed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:24]:
I'm willing to be I'm willing to to move toward other people. I don't know what it is, but the first thing is at least making the sense of of drawing closer to him. And you're saying, God, I'm willing because I wanna embrace those defining moments. Successes, our mistakes, our failures to you. We surrender ourselves, and I'm done playing in and out. I wanna be all in on you and what you have for me, because it's always good. Lord, it's perfect. Lord, it's perfect.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:13]:
And it will be pleasing according to your will according to your will. Thank you for choosing me for choosing me. You've changed my life. You've changed my life. But I wanna be willing to grow more. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Amen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:33]:
Amen. Hey, congratulations, guys. God bless you.