Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
How many of you guys are glad that Christmas is getting close, it's around the corner? Right? Yeah. Thank you. So, Duran and Kristen, everybody else is a Grinch, I guess. Like, so, 2 people, but, you know, I love Christmas season. I love all the lights, I love the music, I love the sights, right? I love the friends and family getting together. We've already started, you know, kind of having some of those kind of gatherings and I love the smells. I love the smell of pine tree. How many of you guys love the smell of pine tree? Right? It's like, we have the most beautiful beautiful tree in our house and I I just love the smell of pine, so I smelled it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:36]:
And I go, I don't smell anything. You know why? That's fake, that's why. But, so, you know, they said I was smart. But it's the most beautiful tree that we've ever had, but but it has no no smell. But sometimes the smell takes you somewhere. Right? And and but this week my wife was baking cookies and I smelled that and I go, oh my gosh, it took me back £25 ago. But, you know, it's just, it's a time that we love the holidays and, like I said, it's a wonderful time, but it stirred something in me, and sometimes what it stirs is just how it is a wonderful season, but at the same time, it really should be stirring us closer to God as well, because it's not just about the friends and family, obviously. It's not just about the kind of the vibe and the decorations, although we all I'm sure most of us love that, but it's really supposed to raise our expectation, drawing closer to God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:36]:
And this period of time that actually started last week in the kind of more traditional calendar. It's called Advent, and it's the 4 weeks, that that ramp up towards Christmas. And it's observed by Christians around the world as a season in which to draw closer to God, to prepare your heart, to worship is for the, coming so that when Christmas comes that we're celebrating the gift of Jesus and that we prepared our hearts for Christmas. And then it points to the fact that something wonderful is coming. And yet, I'm I'm gonna guess that with all the busyness and the end of the year chaos that's out there, that sometimes that might be the furthest thing that can happen, in our lives because, even though, that you're probably still working or still going to school, on top of that now there's all the organizing, there's the shopping, right, there's the planning, there's still kids' activities and sports and rapping and budgeting and finals or traffic and parking. How many have experienced that already? Right. Man, today, I was supposed to be somewhere, I left a half an hour early and I got eaten up by the Christmas parade in Kaneohe, you know, and I was so glad I made it, right on time. I'm usually there early for this kind of a thing, but somebody was later than me, so we had to wait for them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:07]:
So I was glad. And so, I was stressing, right? And then stress eating, right? Maybe all those things happen, right? But, but to be honest, you know, when we talk about this message I'm getting into this weekend, I hope you get something out of it, but the reality is, this message is totally for me tonight as well because some of the most important messages I've ever preached is the ones that I've preached to myself, and so I'm going to just say I'm with you on the tables today, I'm with you at home today because this is really something I need to keep in the forefront of my mind as well. And, and it's just this fact that I love the season, but I need to echo the heart or or remember the line that that we often sing at Christmas in the Christmas carols, that says, Let every heart prepare him room. And so, that's really what the whole thing of this message is tonight because the enemy would love for you and me not to prepare our hearts to go to get up to Christmas, at the end of Christmas go like, I'm so glad that's done with, right, and that we miss the Christ in the midst of Christmas, and He would love for us to put our hope in all the trappings and the lights and all those, but yet be distant from God. And so this opportunity for wonder is before us. Now, and it's just a reminder that we prepare our heart because your heart matters, right? Your heart matters. The, in your chest right now, there's an organ that beats 4,200 times an hour, that over the course of a day comes out to over a 100000 times a day that it beats, and our blood weighs about £25, and all of that courses through your veins in about 4 minutes every day. But the heart in God's word is more than about this thing that beats in your chest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:12]:
It's really about the center of who you are as a person. It's not just the physical part, but the Scriptures talk about, yes, the physical, but it also talks about the more. It talks about the spiritual center of who we are, about the intellectual part about. It's our emotions and our conscience. And and so we see that the heart is an important part to God, and and it's and it's an important part to you. But sometimes our hearts get weary, or our hearts get hardened, or sometimes we our hearts get set on the wrong thing. And in those moments, we need to be renewed. And, you know, there's signs sometimes that your heart needs to be renewed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:52]:
I wanna, kind of, bring up a few signs that your heart needs to be renewed. You know, one of those things, I think, is what, I read this week that how many of you guys read this horrible thing that the CEO of this health insurance company got gunned down on the street, right? It's just like total, kind of looks like a hit thing, you know, and what's even worse than that is the response of some people. That some people on social media were like, oh, wow. I'm happy for that. Like, who else wouldn't be happy for something like that? Right? And I was just thinking, like, oh my gosh. You know, like, sometimes people can get so hardened, right, that we rejoice at the misfortune or the death of someone and I think it's a sign that if you're in that place, obviously, I think that your heart needs to be renewed, right? But more than that, even much less than that is that whenever we're thinking and living or acting like just like the rest of the world, it's often the sign that our hearts need to be renewed. And this season is a reminder that in some ways, you know, like, although we live in this world, we're we're this is not our home. You know, that, we sang the song this evening that says, that heaven and not heaven and nature sing, but, all you citizens of heaven, right, to to praise, right, to worship Him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:26]:
And and to be honest, you and I, we're we're citizens of heaven. We're citizens of the kingdom. Although we live in this world, this world is not our ultimate home. It's really, in the fullness of God's presence. And so when you find yourself speaking like, acting like, sounding like, you know, valuing like the rest of the world, that it's sometimes a sign that you need to be renewed. Proverbs 2417, it says, don't rejoice when your enemies fall or don't be happy when they stumble. In fact, to be honest, God opposes us that when we're in that way, right. That God, when we're stuck in our pride, God opposes, He says, the pride, the proud the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:13]:
I don't know about you, but I never want to have God opposing me, right. And so he says, he gives grace to the humble and the world might think like the world, right. It just does. That's what it can't help that, but we're not supposed to lower our standard to the world's standard. God's called us to a higher standard. And sometimes we need to rejoice with those who rejoice or weep with those who weep, and celebrate or grieve or whatever accordingly, but, but here's a sign that sometimes that we need a heart renewal. The Apostle Paul, when he writes to the Corinthian church, who is a very gifted church, they're very moved powerfully in the spirit, they move powerfully in prophetic words, in healing, in tongues, they moved in kind of like the sign gifts very powerfully, but this is what he said to them. He said, dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you, I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:12]:
I had to talk to you as though you belong to the world. Right? He says, because as as as, belong to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. You know, it's he's saying that, you know, you should be in a different place. He says, I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food because you weren't ready for anything stronger. And he says this, you're still not ready. And because you're still controlled by your sinful nature, you're jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. And so wherever there's, you know, anger and quarreling and division, it's sometimes a sign that our hearts need to be renewed. He says, doesn't that prove you are not that you are controlled by your sinful nature, aren't you living like the people of the world? And he says, instead, we got to live like this is a temporary residency in some way, that we're to a higher calling.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:07]:
And so, living as foreigners in the world means that we hold to our home country's values, right? The values of the kingdom. And sometimes, it's not just that though, that you're a good looking group, right? So do me a favor, take a look at the, people on your table. Right? Some of you guys just giggle. I just like, Oh my gosh. So, but just do me a favor, tell them, Hey, you look good. You look good. Some of you guys are lying through your teeth. No, no, but like, you know, the thing is that everybody wants to look good, right? Nobody wants to look bad, but sometimes you look good on the outside, but not so much on the inside.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:50]:
And, you know, when you look bad on the outside, but you're stressed on the inside or maybe you're resentful of something, and you know, sometimes there's all this activity, and and how many of you guys have noticed that when there's activities at home or projects at work, not everybody works equally hard? Anybody notice that? Anybody have a school project? That you have that school project and you got to work together and and it's like, hey, we formed all this stuff out, and it's like, some people work super hard and then some guy just shows up and he goes like, I don't know, here's my paper, and it's like, got like one paragraph, right? So we all know that and sometimes that you get a little frustrated, maybe you get a little angry, right? Maybe you get a little exhausted with it. Sometimes we're discouraged. Sometimes we get depressed. Sometimes we get frustrated or lonely or, you know, that we deal with our flesh or lust or whatever it is that why is that? Because sometimes, even though we're looking good on the outside, that our hearts are disconnected from that heart, from the actions that are happening. And Jesus said it like this, He says, where He He looked at the crowd and He said this, He said, Isaiah was right when He prophesied about you, for He wrote, 'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And sometimes we're not careful that can reflect us. He says this, their worship is a farce where they teach man made ideas as commands from God. Because he's saying, you know, like, we're looking good on the outside, but the heart is somehow just still a 1000000 miles away from God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:27]:
And so, sometimes we need to be reminded that it's not just looking good, but God wants to renovate our hearts as well. You know, I have some friends that they're going through a renovation season, and, renovating their home. Anybody here lived through a renovation? Right? Like, how many of you think that's the most peaceful season? Like, oh my gosh, it's such a mess, right? It's like your refrigerator's in the living room, your kitchen stuff is all over the place, and to be honest, sometimes when God renovates the heart, just like when we renovate a house, it looks messier in the process, but you know what, that's the necessary thing to look better for the long run. Never be afraid to let God renovate your heart. That sometimes when He does that, you know what He does? He surfaces the bad attitude. He surfaces the things where, you know, where our hearts are pointed in the wrong direction. This is not something that's bad, it's something that's good. Because you would never make a change unless God had surfaced those things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:30]:
Because we need to be remember we need to be reminded. It's sometimes you're getting things done, but but it takes more than that. We need to be, when you're getting things done, this is another sign, when you're getting things done, but others pay the cost. You know what I mean? There's some people, it's like, you got it done, but the kids are a mess and they're crying. It's like, I told you we're going to do the shopping and we're going to sit on Santa's lap and this and this and this. He's like, we got the picture. Right? Like, but everybody else pays the price. I remember when my kids were really young and I don't know why I was like this, but you had to give the kids a bath, and you know, the kids, like, all 3 kids, they could take a bath together, right, and, and it's just easier and you just throw them all in and you just get the water hose, no, I'm just kidding, but you, you know, that kind of a thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:19]:
And they're wanting to play and what are you trying to do? You're trying to hurry up, hurry up, right, wash your hair, wash your hair, it's like get and I just remember, like, getting the kids and sometimes being so frustrated, you know, when I have so much to do and and the kids are young and and and I sometimes make them cry because I push them so hard and and it just reminds me, sometimes you can get things done but others pay the cost. Right. And and so Paul says it like this in 1st Corinthians 13. He said, I could speak with the languages of earth and of angels, but if I didn't love others, I'd only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. He said, If I have to give the prophecy and understood all these God's secret plans and possess all knowledge, if I had such faith that I could move mountains but don't love others, I'd be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor, even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I'd have gained nothing. And sometimes, we need to be mindful. If you're seeing the bodies in back of you kind of stacking up, but you're getting things, in back of you kind of stacking up, but you're getting things done, sometimes that's the sign that you need to get your heart renewed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:32]:
You know, and I'd say this, that the other thing that you need to remember is because when you're in that mode, you got to get things done because, yeah, you know, you do have to get things done. Yes, we understand you do have to pay the bills. You got to get to work. You got to get to this place on time. We understand all of those things, but sometimes the biggest battle that you'll get go through in life, they're not the physical battles, right? You know, for some of us, this after this election, you might be tempted to think, Oh, the battle's all won. Nothing could be further from the truth, right. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of us were at this place, it's like, Oh, I got all the stuff together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:11]:
It's like that. That's the main thing. It's like, Oh, no, no, it's not, right. Maybe you're having a struggle at work. Maybe you're having this battle with a spouse or a loved one, or just sometimes things keep going wrong. I thought we settled these kinds of things. Remember that the battle that you face, the biggest battle is not physical battle, it's a spiritual battle. It's a it's a emotional battle.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:38]:
And that if we don't kinda settle those those battles, with the armor that God gives us, we don't settle it with the things that God gives us, you used the wrong tool. Right. You think that the battle is a physical battle, so I'm gonna use physical means, right. And I'm gonna yell louder. I'm gonna, you know, kinda, you know, frustrate this person. I'm gonna block them. I'm gonna do all these things. But the biggest battle is really, it's not a physical battle.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:06]:
The biggest battles are spiritual battles. We see this from the beginning, that even in the beginning, when people were made, that there were 2 brothers, Cain and Abel, and they both wanted to worship God, right, and so it says that that Abel, who was a shepherd, was giving the best of his flocks, to God and that God received it, and then Cain, who was, it says, the tiller of the ground, another he's a farmer, right, he's growing wheat or crops or whatever he's growing and it says that he gave some of his and and it says that God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He didn't accept Cain's and so Cain got jealous. Cain got competitive. Cain got, in the comparison game. You guys ever been in a comparison game? Right. It could be with your own family, right. There's this whole thing that brothers and sisters and there's that sibling rivalry, right. Sometimes you get that on your at work, sometimes you get it with your neighbors, sometimes you can get it with your co worker who it it it can be in all kinds of places.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:15]:
Churches can get it, right? You know, we can get this kind of a situation, but but here's what happens. So the Lord sees Cain in this place that he he's upset, right. He's looking at like, blah, blah, I love God just as much as the next guy, right. Whatever he's thinking. And so verse 6 in in Genesis 4, it says this. Why are you so angry? Let's just say that together. Why are you so angry? What if God asks you that today? Why are you so angry? Why are you so angry? The Lord asked Cain. He says, why do you look so dejected? You'll be accepted if you do what is right, but if you dejected? You'll be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then he says, then watch out because sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:08]:
And you know, sometimes we think you ever have somebody tell you, like, you know, when you're in that mood, you're already in that mood. You guys know what that mood I'm talking about? Like, it's like, I don't want to hear nothing from nobody. And then they say, Hey, you know what you need to do? And then what do you say? Well, I mean, some of us, we cannot say what you would say but like, but we the reality comes out like, I know, I know, I know. You guys ever you know what I'm talking about? Right? But knowing has very little to do with doing. Right. And what we see in this situation, it's not knowledge, it's a change of heart that's necessary. Because, you know, God Himself came to Cain and He says, you know what, He's saying to His son, He's saying, you know, why are you so angry? You know, we can work this out, like, but you just, you gotta get past this. But he refused.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:09]:
And what's the result? Is he kills his brother. And even though God warned him, even though God warns you, unless you sometimes get that heart change, you know, we can blow things up. I think I'm not the only person here who's blown something up in life. That you knew you shouldn't do it, you knew you shouldn't do it, but you just kind of said, I don't know. What's going to happen if I just do this? What's so bad? Right? Because I why? Because I felt like it. And I think the thing is, you don't have to set yourself back like that. You don't have to, Can you pick up the pieces? God will help you. But to be honest, sometimes a few pieces are missing and you just go through life with a few more holes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:02]:
And so, what's the alternative when you get that way? Part of what God says is, to be honest, how do you deal with that? It's not an easy road. It's a simple road, but it's not an easy road. Right? Simple and easy are two different things, because Jesus had a simple response. He said it like this, then He says to the crowd, if any of you let's say, any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. Jesus is not saying this to the disciples. He's saying it to everybody, right? Because sometimes, you need to deny yourself.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:05]:
You need to deny your emotion. You need to deny your anger. When I say deny, not deny that you have anger, deny to listen to your anger. Not to say that you deny that you're lonely, deny letting your loneliness drive your decision making, right. So sometimes it comes that way. Is that simple? It's simple, not easy. It's not easy. And so this is what God says, I think, that you can't do it, but you can do it in partnership with Me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:44]:
You can do it when you come to Me. You can do it when you draw near to Me. You can do it when you're letting Me prepare your your heart. Because the enemy wants to frustrate you. He wants you to just live out of your flesh. He wants you just to live like the rest of the world. He wants you to just get focused on all those things. He wants you to want to make the kids so happy that you're going to kill yourself to do everything else, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:09]:
Those kinds of things, there's not is it wrong to have the things that the world has? No, it's not wrong. Is it wrong to want to have the kids be happy? No, that's not wrong. He says, this is what it does though. If that's the only thing, but if that's the only thing, and that's the thing we focus on, he says, you're not going to have the peace. You're not going to have the joy. You're not going to have my presence, right. And when I say this, it's because to be honest, like I said, this is a message I need. Because it's a busy season for everybody.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:42]:
And it's not just busy because the church is busy, right? It's like, it's the family stuff is busy and and I have ministry responsibilities outside of the church and dealing with other churches and all of these things. And to be honest, just it's just like was one of those weeks. Anybody here have one of those weeks? Right. And so, you know, it's just like stacking up. And I was just thinking, I don't even know how can we finish my message for up and I was just thinking, I don't even know how to finish my message for tonight. And I had these other responsibilities I had to be at today. And so I woke up just kind of already a little frustrated, to be honest, already a little heavy. And so I did what I do every morning.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:19]:
I started reading the Bible. I started reaching out to God. How many of you read the Bible and you go like, I read words today, right? You know what I mean? I know I read words, but I kind of didn't hear God, you know what I mean, in the middle of it. I read words though. They were good words. It's important, but can I give you something that that helped me just to meet God today and totally changed my outlook today, totally changed the way the day went? And and it's just because I directed my heart toward God. And so this is the last thing, just direct your heart toward God. You know, Psalm 11912 112 says this, let's read this together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:06]:
Let's look at the screen or look in your nose. Let's read what it says. Ready? Let's read. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end. Right? And so, do me a favor, let's say the word incline. So sometimes, incline, you think is this, it's going uphill, right? But let's just say this. To incline your heart is just to say it's to change the direction, right, of what it would normally go. Right? So he's saying that I'm gonna, and I looked it up, and it actually means to stretch out, to spread out, to extend, to bend.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:44]:
In other words, my heart was headed in one direction, but I bent it another direction. My heart was stuck, but I stretched it. My heart was so thin that I gathered it together. Right? And so we find this thing that I was gathered it together, right. And so we find this thing that I was short, but I extended my heart. And so, when you're in this place, you guys ever get mad? You ever say, you ever get good and mad? You ever get mad and it just feels good to be mad, right? Sometimes, if I'm mad, sometimes it feels good to be mad, right? You ever talk stink about somebody and then you say, oh, it felt good to talk stink about somebody, right? It's just in that moment, like, you guys, like, are you guys all saints, Like, all just kind of like, no. It's like, right. Sometimes, it's like, you ever feel sorry for yourself and you throw pity party, invite all your friends, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:33]:
Like, sometimes, it feels good to do that but you know what? It doesn't get you where you want to go, right? It doesn't give you what you want to get. So here's what I did this morning. I wasn't necessarily angry or was it? I don't know. I just was kind of feeling a little overwhelmed, feeling a little bit of that. And you know, I just did what I wrote right before on the bottom. I just stopped. I had read the Word of God, but when you read the Word of God and you're not getting out of it, this is also something that you can do. All I did was I confessed where I was at.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:10]:
I said, God, today, I'm just, just a little overwhelmed. Yeah. I felt like, and it's not because it's like an overwhelming amount of stuff on my plate, it's the fact that something is in my heart. There's just something in my heart. And I just said, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. And then I just said, you know, sometimes Lord, I've been focusing on the wrong thing. And so I just repented of any sin, right. And I just said, and just saying where you're at, if you're lonely, tell them you're lonely.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:50]:
If you're frustrated, tell them you're frustrated. If you're discouraged, tell them you're discouraged. You know why that's important? Because if you don't, you end up blaming other people for it, right? Because when you don't own it, you make other people own it. And so confess where you're at, and then all I did was I said, you know, Lord, I'm sorry, I put so much effort and emphasis on these things when I should have been doing other things, and so I owned it. And you know the first just in that moment and I just I was just praying, you know, just talking to God and just saying I'm so glad that You're my Father. I'm so glad that there's nobody else like You. I'm so glad Lord that I just started and I was just praising God, just really just kind of starting out that way. Kind of like what the verses below said, you know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:41]:
In the Lord's prayer, it says, pray then like this, this is how Jesus said, Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. What is holy? It's like a cut above. He's above everything else. God, You're just I'm so glad nobody is as good as You. Nobody's as strong as You. And just as I did that, I did those things, and I'm drawing close to God, it's like I just feel the weight of the world lifted from my shoulder. I I didn't do anything special. I just came as I was, turned my eyes to somebody who is better than me, right, turned my eyes towards God, and I repented of what I needed to.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:29]:
And I just asked them, Lord, fill me with your presence. And you know what, I just felt renewed. When I got up, I had a song in my heart. When I got up, my heart was ready. My heart was ready for God. I still had a full day, you know, still had to do these things. I still had to prepare some other stuff. But you know, it was different.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:56]:
And then when I hit that half an hour extra traffic, to because of the Christmas parade, you know, normally I would be I would be pretty upset sitting in that car. I might say, what, you know, is going on, right, like, you know, what the heaven? No, just kidding. That's not what I would say. But, but I was I was fine. Right? I I you know what I did? I just worshiped through this thing. And, and it's because my heart was prepared. You see, when you prepare your heart, the enemy will still throw things at you. He'll still but, but you got your guard up now.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:49]:
You've been filled already for the day. That mean you won't leak? No, you'll leak. I leak. We all leak. But when you catch a whiff of heaven, it reminds you something wonderful is coming. And that's happening in 2 weeks, but something is wonderful happening. Sometimes it's in the rest of the day. Sometimes it's what He's doing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:15]:
I love what this, theologian Frederick Buechner said. He says, for a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and at times you may not have any words for, and you're aware of the beating of your heart and the extraordinary thing about it, it's that what's about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. And this is what it means to prepare your heart for the moment. So over the next few weeks, can we just prepare our hearts? Best time to start? Today. Amen? Let's close, let's bow our heads. Let's close an order for her today. And you know that if you've already confessed that sin maybe before we took communion, you already told God that where you're at, you know, please know He already hears you. But you know, sometimes, you know, when we could talk through the message and we get through these things, it just kind of reminds us, you know, that I haven't been doing that, you know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:26]:
I've been telling other people my my heart. I've been, you know, making other people try to be responsible for those things because I have not been. But maybe this is that time for you. Can you just turn your heart towards God? And if you have not already, would you just tell Him exactly where you are at today? What you've been dealing with? What's bothered you? Just just tell them. Because when we confess those things, then we start taking ownership of it. Notice it is not what my brother did or not what my friend did, but this is how this is what is going on in me. And if you know that, you know, you made a contribution to it, you know, you have a part in this whole thing, There's something that you need to repent of. There's something that you need to and what is repent? It just means to change your direction, where you need to change that direction.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:32]:
You need to change an attitude. You need to change a decision. You need to change a direction. Would You just be willing to change? And, Lord, it's because there's nobody like You. There's nobody as good as You. There's nobody as strong as you. There's been nobody that's been as kind as you in our life. Lord, nobody who's been more merciful than you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:59]:
Nobody who's loved us like you. Lord, nobody who has touched us like you. And because of that, Lord, we're drawing close. Would you just draw close to him? And that you might not have the strength, but would you ask him today, Lord, would you fill me with your spirit all afresh? That as we move forward, Lord, there's going to be busyness, there's going to be extra things, but, Lord, we are not looking to those things to bring us life. We are looking to You. But our life is in You. It's hid in Christ. And so, Father, that when you fill us, I thank you that you fit your fill.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:48]:
You fill to overflow. And, father, would it instead of my frustration being poured out on those around me or instead of my my anger or my my shortness, Lord, would You fill me to overflowing with Your grace so that what spills out of me is Your grace. Lord, it's Your mercy. Lord, it's Your peace. Lord, it's your generosity. Father, I pray these things because I love you because you love me. In Jesus' name. You know with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, you know, maybe you've never said yes to Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:37]:
Maybe that's what God's been calling you to do. Right? Maybe it's maybe you're listening to this message, and you've gone through this frustration because, to be honest, God orchestrated all this stuff for you today. And if you've never said yes to Jesus, because it's hard to give something that you've never received. Right? If you've never been loved unconditioned, it's hard to love somebody unconditionally. It's impossible to be happy. But if that's you and you're saying, God, if you're really gonna love me like that, you're really gonna you're really gonna hold me like that, you're really gonna look at me like that, I wanna know you. I wanna be close. I I wanna be your child, and would you be my God if that's you today? Would you know that God has a hand extended? And He's saying if you take my hand, just just be honest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:33]:
Be honest with me. Be honest with yourself. We all know that we've made our mistakes. We all know that we sin in different ways. We might not be as horrible as as some people think, but we make no mistakes. We know who we are. And if You are saying, God, but would You take me? God, would You be my god? And I turn from what I know is wrong. Come, live inside me today.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:05]:
Come, Jesus. Would You pay the price? I know You came as a baby on that first Christmas, but Lord, thank You as Lord of the universe. Would You come live inside me today? Forgive me today. Lead me today. God, I want to be your child. Would you be my God? In Jesus' name. Amen. Hey.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:35]:
Can we say congratulations to those folks? I hope you guys have a great rest of the evening, a wonderful weekend. Thanks for joining us tonight.