Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
Again, welcome. Thanks for, joining us, guys. If you're again, if you're new here too, I I appreciate the fact that, you would pray with us and, let yourself either pray or be prayed for, because sometimes we get stretched. I know it's it's it's a stretch. A lot of times when people come, we we just expect that we'll sit and we we won't interact with anybody. But, and there's a time and place for that, but I think that, to be honest, one of the ways that we learn how to pray is by praying. And so thank you for, letting yourselves at times be stretched. Right? So turn to your neighbor and just say thank you for letting yourself be stretched.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:34]:
And then, for some of us, it's actually you you gotta tighten now, because some of us during the 21 days, you guys been losing some weight, and so good things that happen, little side benefits that happen, but I also just wanted to mention, and say thank you because, sometimes, you know, when you give your tithes and offerings, you kind of wonder maybe what, it goes toward, and for sure it goes towards like paying rent and and staff, and all those things, and rentals, the school rental on Sunday, obviously, those kinds of things. But, it also allows us to sow seed into things that I really believe God wants us to do. You know, the fires in LA have been, kind of like a To be honest, if you I used to live in LA for 3 years, and, you're aware of fires. And, they used to have fire season, but fire season wasn't now. Fire season was like summer, you know, July through, you know, October maybe, but it's it's just, you know, as things have changed, that, there's no time. This is just, it can happen at any time, and and so it allowed devastation that's going on there, there's 17 churches that are are are are sister, brothers, our sister churches out in that area who are trying to to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And so, we just through our Foursquare disaster relief team, that that has been investing in that area that Lord, we we partnered we partnered with them, and we gave on your behalf, you know. We we gave a couple $1,000 to do that, and what that that goes toward is stuff like water and blankets, and all those kinds of little things because in that area, yes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:18]:
Are there rich people? Yeah. Absolutely, there's rich people, but not everybody's rich. Right? And even if you're rich, to be honest, people people still need comfort, people still need encouragement, people still need direction, people still need hope. And so these are just some of the things that maybe it's hard to read, and it it says 5 in this, but you know, as things have kinda expanded, there's 17 churches that have been doing, but they've been bringing like sleeping bags, cots, water filtration systems, Internet access to those places, and we've been coordinating with different things. And so thank you for for doing that, and please let's keep them in prayer, because the fire is far from from out, and all it takes is just one more kind of a high wind, and it just becomes a tinderbox again. I I know that you guys probably watch closely, where Hope went to school, right, just that whole area. I have some friends who live in that area, that Valencia area that they were on, you know, notification to to evacuate. I'm sure many of us are like that that you have friends and or family there, so, we are keeping them in our, in our prayer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:26]:
Hey, we're gonna change gears though this, this evening, and, you know, as we're still in the beginning of the year in January, I think, many of us feel like, probably, you know, you wanna do some things different, right, that many of us feel like probably, you know, you want to do some things different, right? That God still has some things in store for you, you have things that that you worked on, that you didn't get to, there's all kinds of things, but I hope you believe that there's more in store for you this year than there was last year. And part of it is that God wants us to grow into the future. Right? And sometimes he's pruning us, but even if you're being pruned in this season, would you know that when God prunes, he says the reason why he does is to make us more fruitful. Right? And so even in those moments, it's preparation not just for today, but it's preparation for tomorrow. And and you know, when when all of us are here, I think all of us, we we have a potential that's much greater than than you can see. I don't know if you've ever been in a season in your life where you, it could be a sports thing, it could be a work thing, it's just that you go, you know, I can't do it. Like it's the typical thing maybe I I hear or like if it's in the gym, if somebody says, give me this is out of everybody, anybody been in the gym, you hear these words, you appreciate them, but you hate them at the same time where somebody goes, give me 3 more. Right? Give me 2 more.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:47]:
Like, you you you appreciate it because they they're believing something out of you, and you wanted to just put that thing back on the rack, but you kinda hate it at the same time. But it's it's to make you stronger. And when people say that or when God says that in our life, it's because he believes there's more in you. And I believe there's more in you. And so what we wanna talk about this evening is reaching our potential. And you know, I I found this, in our series on, the power to change. I I saw this aspect of reaching our potential in in a pretty familiar passage, this week, and, and it's often just called the parable of the sower, where Jesus tells a story. He says about the kingdom of God, and he says, listen, a farmer before I just read that, like, let's just stand.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:40]:
Let's stand in reverence for for God, reverence for His word. And we're gonna read this passage out loud. And because it's long, I'll read the majority, but then you'll we'll read the end together. And it says, listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds, and as he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. And others fell other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock, and the seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died. And other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. But let's read this last one.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:26]:
Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was 30, 60 and even a 100 times as much as has been planted. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. And you know, Jesus goes on to explain this parable, in in just the very not the very next verses, verses 18 to 23. It's just a little bit in the same chapter, and he talks about how the soils represent people. Right? And the farmer who sows a seed is God our father, and the word he said the seed is the word. And he says, it's the same word that is planted in the soil are different kinds of hearts, right, is planted in different kind of hearts. And and some, it says, get eaten because they didn't understand, some because the, the the shallowness that went they didn't really have any substantial roots. So when there was a little opposition, when somebody said something negative about their fate that they they kind of fade.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:26]:
Right? And they because they didn't have any roots. And and then it says the other ones that it seemed like it was really growing up, but then all of a sudden it seems like it got caught up in the weeds. In my backyard, there's these plants and all of a sudden, I noticed there's a vine growing across this thing, and if you let that thing grow, it will choke out, those plants, you know. And so I just pulled it out. And then it says the last one is the last one is the good soil. And so, obviously, of the 4 soils, which one do you wanna be? Good soil. Good soil. Right? It's like a it's kind of a no brainer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:01]:
And and so the thing is though, it says good soil or people who produce fruit, he says it's 30, 60, a 100 times. And I I believe that when God looks at us, he says, there's at least 30 times more in you. Right? He looks at you. That's the minimum, he says. That there's a potential. Right? There's there's some it's exceedingly, abundantly beyond what you could ask or think, the potential that God can do in us. But we have to give him the space to do that in our life. We have to cooperate with that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:34]:
And so God says you can have an impact for the kingdom and your spiritual stature will grow. You have authority that you're gonna wield, but you gotta reach your potential. So before you see it, turn to your neighbor and say, let's reach our potential this year. It doesn't mean that you're going to live a perfect year. It doesn't mean you're going to live a perfect, you know, 52 weeks. But, you know, we're we're destined to overcome the circumstances and be influences for good in the world, to reach the world for Christ, that that because it's because our life matters. And and that one day, to be honest, I don't know if you guys are aware that the scripture even says that one day, that you and I, that if if we're faithful, it says, you know what, we're gonna judge angels. Like, I don't feel qualified to do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:20]:
Right? But that's what the word says. And so God is looking at me. He says, Glenn, there's more that you that's in you. There's potential. And you may not be at that place now, but what needs to happen is your roots need to go down in all of those instances that because there was a hard substrate, that the roots couldn't go down. But the solution was to be able to go deeper. Right? And then one was there was a shallow substrate. Right? But then it says, okay, you you but the solution was still to go deeper.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:52]:
Even the even that was was choked by weeds, weeds won't grow as as deep roots as the things that are more substantial. And so when the roots go deeper, then you still have the capacity to grow, right? And so I believe God's saying for all of us, you know, this year that if you wanna reach your potential, that we gotta grow deeper. We gotta grow deeper. And part of that is getting into God's word. Right? Because without the scripture, to be honest, our faith, we can sing all the great songs and we can and we can be stirred in all of these ways, but without the word of God, we won't have the wisdom of the ages. We won't have the the undisputable voice of God in our lives. That we need the word of God as well. And we can talk about habits, and we will talk about habits.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:45]:
But you can have all the best habits in the world, but if you're not being changed and grown on the inside, then the habits will not be sustainable, over the long haul. In 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17 in the New Living Translation, it says it like this. It says, let's read this together. Can we? All scripture is inspired by God. Right? Not some scripture, all scripture. And it's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:31]:
Right? There will be times when you read the word of God that you may not understand what you read. I I totally get that. There's times I don't understand, what I read, right. And it you know what it does? It causes me to go deeper, right. Sometimes though, you will read and it's like the the Holy Spirit had a highlighter, and it just made those words leap off the page at you. Right? And and so, sometimes you're gonna read some words, they're just gonna resonate with you and you're gonna be thinking about it all day, right, if if you let it. And and that's important because it's God speaking to you. And sometimes you read something that you're gonna understand a little bit more about, this is how God works, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:14]:
Then you're gonna understand a little bit more, this is what God is doing in my life. This is what, how God is gonna, stretching my faith. This is something a little bit about the world that we live in, that you understand about the situations that you face, and maybe, again, even like the song, I I I just think back to that song, how different it is, not just of our time, but it was as it was just as different in Jesus's time, right? When we sang the words that that, If you curse me, I'll bless you. Right? If if you if you hurt me, I'll, I forget what it says in the thing, but I like that. Right? But it's all the construct, and it's from the beatitudes. And so when we're in the midst of those things that, to be honest, I don't know about you, but I need the word of God to guide me because left to my own devices, you know when somebody slaps me, I like slap them back. Right? Left to my own devices, if someone like, you know, hurts me, you know what, there's part of me that wants to hurt them back, right? So I'm not the only sinner, right? Like I'm not only guy, I'm guessing, but but there's this aspect. But, you know, when I see what God is doing, when he calls me higher, then when he gives me the power as well that comes along, I don't always have to respond that way.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:29]:
Right? And and you've probably been in situations where you could have gone either way. You guys know what I'm talking about? I could have held my tongue. And when you did, it got better. But sometimes, okay, let's just start this thing all over again, right? That's what happens when we, when we, when we don't. And so, we need God's word, right? To be honest, you'll see yourself in the scripture. Sometimes you'll see others. And please, when you read the scriptures, don't just look like, oh, yeah, that's what this guy does and don't that's what that guy does, right? And there's those are important lessons. Those are important lessons, but sometimes, see, it will also reveal you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:09]:
Right? It will also reveal you. And it will also call you higher because it's impossible to grow deeper roots and be sustained over the long run to reach our potential within our faith apart from God's word. I love what it says in Romans 15:4. It says, For everything that was written in the past was written not just to teach them, but to teach us. So that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement that they provide, we might have what? Hope. Hope. Right? And so if if you wanna be more hopeful about your situations, if you wanna be more hopeful about your life, you wanna be more hopeful about the direction that God is leading you. Be in the scripture because what you'll see is that God is able to, at times, even that if you're here and your destination that you're that you know God wants to bring you is here, and you seem to be going this way, that if you read the scripture, you'll see how in the world God brought people in these different directions that somehow, they end up where sometimes they they always hoped they'd be, but where God wanted them to be.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:25]:
But you see that. I'm in this time of the year. I'm reading right now about Joseph. It's that's his story. It's about how he had a dream. No one believed his dream. They actually, they misinterpreted his dream. They misinterpreted him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:40]:
They hated him. They were jealous of him. They were envious of him, right. And how it seemed like, god, I had this dream about here, and I went this direction. But even in that case, god was always moving him to the destination that he had. He was always raising him, and he had more potential than he ever thought he could have, right? God believes the same thing about you, and he believes the same thing about me. And so we need to be in the word. So I wanna challenge you this year, and you know, we haven't really talked about that, but but I wanna challenge each of us that to to set a goal, to set a faith goal, to be in God's word on a on a daily basis.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:22]:
And and if you are new to reading the scriptures, maybe just start with 5 minutes. Right? Maybe you start with, scriptures, maybe just start with 5 minutes. Right? Maybe you start with, download the Bible app that's free on on your phone, and maybe you read the verse of the day, and you start saying, okay, maybe that's a step for you. But for many of us, that you way past that, right, That maybe you ought to be reading, maybe reading through the New Testament in the next 6 months. Maybe you ought to be reading, having a goal to read through the scriptures. That it's not like just pastors read through the Bible, right? There's many people who have read through the entire Bible, right, and maybe they didn't do it all in 1 year, maybe it took them a while to get there, but you know, it's not an impossible thing, and it's but it's also not like a magical thing too. It's not like once you read through the Bible, that it solves all your problems or that you know all the answers, but be in God's word. Why? Because it allows you to read and to know God's heart, and to know God's mind, and to hear His voice, right? So often, what we want to understand is God, what is God's voice? We want to know the the whispers of the Holy Spirit, and there is that part.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:34]:
Absolutely. We pray that all of you hear the whispers of God, But if you don't know the word of God, then you hear a whisper. Not every whisper is God, right? And so you won't be able to discern or make an evaluation, right, of that unless you truly know the word of God. And it keeps you on track. We need guardrails in our life. The word of God is a guardrail. It keeps you from going over the edge and it keeps you basically in the center, you know, to keep going in the direction that God wants us to go. And I'm gonna challenge you to get closer with God's people because, look around you, this is God's family, right? This is God's family.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:22]:
And you know, that you'll spend eternity with these people. They go, Really? No, it's getting up. But you know, the thing is that, but we get to know one another. But here's the thing that it'll help you feel connected. It'll help you to sharpen you and to grow. As iron sharpens iron says that, so does one person sharpen another. And you know, we're we're challenging you guys as well to grow in your your prayer life, your worship life. Right? And and, and and when you do those things so often, we're gonna be, wanna do something for God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:53]:
We're gonna wanna, you know, jump in on some kind of a team. We're gonna wanna reach out to somebody at work. We're gonna wanna pray. You know, the number one reason why I think people don't share their faith and lead someone who they really believe needs Jesus is fear, right? That's the number one reason. But I say the second reason is it's difficult to share something that we're not experiencing, right? And so that's also another thing. And so being in these things will give you the fuel to do the thing because I think each of us can reach 1, right? That each of us can reach 1, and not just like 1 in your lifetime, but you know, one every year, right? One every 6 months, right? Each of us, right? Because God, aren't you glad that God doesn't just love you, but he loves your family? Right? That he loves your friends, right? And then we all have that friend, like the knucklehead friend, you know what I mean? We all have the knucklehead friend. But aren't you glad God loves your knucklehead friend and that you love them, right? God loves them too. But to be honest, they need to experience the Lord.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:01]:
Right? But you and I, we can grow in our faith. And how we do that often will be developing good, godly habits, good faith habits, right, as well as other, good habits in other areas of our life, right? Because when you grow in your faith, God starts to transform you as a person. And and to make you more and more reflective of Jesus in character, and that hopefully, over time, in temperament. Right? And that he wants you to prosper in all aspects of your life. Now, when when we say the word prosper, I'm not talking about everybody's gonna drive, you know, Mercedes and, you know, Lamborghini or whatever. Not that kind of prosper. Will some people have material goods? Yeah. I actually, I know people who have like attained a fair amount of wealth, and, and it's the blessing of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:56]:
I'm just asking, just rub my head a little bit. No, I'm just kidding. But, but but to be honest, the other kind of prosper is a fullness of life. Right? It's a fullness in your soul. Right? It's an aspect and and god's, you know what, at the same time, I don't have that kind of a situations where my friends are, but god has always met my needs. Right? And so, here's that aspect that we see that when us becoming like Jesus, what do we see? That I I think we see a person who was skilled in in the way in relationships. Right? He had good people skill. Right? He loved people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:34]:
He welcomed people. He loved the most unlovable people, right. The people that you wouldn't expect that he would, he loved them, embraced them, covered them, covered them in their nakedness, didn't reject them in their guilt and their shame, spoke life to them, right, that at the same time, he was a skilled leader, right? He knew his heavenly father and operated in the power of the Holy Spirit, right. He was skillful in his job, right, I believe. He was a carpenter. It doesn't tell us too much about it, but how many of us believe that Jesus didn't get bad reviews from ancient Yelp? Right? Or like, or like when people would do the Amazon review or maybe it was called the Jordanian review or whatever, like, and it's like, it wasn't like one star, you know what I mean? I think that when Jesus made something, I think it was a family heirloom. I think it was something that was passed from 1 generation to the next. And so when we become like Jesus, it helps us in our people relationships.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:39]:
Right? It helps us in what we do in our world. It helps us in in the kind of person that we are and that we can operate in the power of his spirit. And so in the same way, right, we we need to get closer to God this year, right? We need to be growing deeper and growing our roots deeper. But part of that is it can be helpful, is growing good habits, right? And, you know, I'm guessing that many of us have thought about like a health kind of a goal. I'm guessing everybody has some kind of a health goal. Some of us want to lose weight, some of us wanna gain weight. Right? Some of us wanna eat better. Some of us, we wanna, you know, improve our mind.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:17]:
We wanna take this class. We wanna learn a new language. What whatever, the case, but, 2 decades ago, some researchers in, Great Britain, looked at 248 people about how to build better exercise habits, and they broke them down into 3 groups because they were researchers. So they had to make one group that didn't do anything that's called the control group. They just told them, just tell us how much you exercise. Right? And then the second group was called the motivation group, and the motivation group was asked to track their workouts and and also to read some materials about the benefits of exercise because they wanted them to have some motivation. Right? And they were also taught how to exercise, and, you know, how it and that how it reduces, you know, heart disease and all this kind of stuff and improves health. And then the 3rd group received all the same stuff as the second group, but on top of that, they were asked to formulate a simple plan about when and where they would exercise the following week.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:23]:
And they were asked to do at least 20 minutes. And so in that time, there was day time in place. In the first group, it was 35% that actually exercised. Because they just were told, 35% just did it. Wow. It was awesome. Right? And so some of you, hey, 35% of us, you just couldn't do it because you just know to do it. The ones who got motivated was 38%, right? And so, not a whole lot different, but the ones who were also set the day and the place and the time was 91%, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:07]:
And that they exercise at least 20 minutes, at least once a week, vigorously, it says. And that, you know, I think all of us, we intend to grow deeper in our faith, but if don't have a day, we don't have a time, we don't have a place we're gonna meet God, sometimes 35%, 35% of the time maybe I do it, maybe sometimes less, maybe sometimes more, and we all wanna build better habits, and we all wanna have better faith habits, and we all wanna have better lifestyle habits, but but often, you know, without a day and a place and a time, it it doesn't happen. And and sometimes, just that saying those things, can help. Saying that, saying that like, you, whatever it is that you want to do, what's one thing that you guys want to do? Anybody, just shout out. What's one thing you want to change or accomplish or improve in your life this year? Anything. Not all at one time. No, it's like, it's like, you guys are all thinking about it. Well, don't just say it out to anybody.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:09]:
You don't have to be, don't do something embarrassing, but just say something. What's that? Lose weight. Okay. So, if if Jess says, hey, you know, I want to lose weight this year, and and maybe he doesn't even set the whole thing, maybe he says, you know, I want to lose 10, I want to lose 20, whatever it is that that, but just saying it is called an implementation intention. And so they said that saying it, just saying it, can actually help help you to do that, right? It's like, if you're saying, you know what, like, oh, anybody ever forget that you're supposed to do something, you have a task, an errand, something to pick up, but you don't do it? Like, hey, don't forget to pick up, you know, the milk from the supermarket tomorrow. And they go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, sometimes I noticed my wife, the other day, she told me, can you take out the trash? And I said, oh yeah, okay. And then I heard her say, okay.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:06]:
Like, in other words, but no action, you know what I mean? Like, that's what she was saying, oh, okay. But if I had said, I will take out the trash at, you know, as soon as I'm done eating, one, she would have been happy, but, you know, what it's saying that I would be more likely to do it. I did do it anyway, right? But I would be more likely to do it if I actually just said that. Right? I just had an intention and stated the intention. Who to who? I'm just saying it to myself. And, and of course, if you wrote it down, you put in your planner, right, you have all these things. But just an idea of implementation, just having that intention is helpful, but you can go further than that. Because what it comes to is that you got to get a little bit more specific.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:57]:
Right? You need to have something that becomes a little bit more tangible. So it's not just an idea in general, but having an idea is better than having none, but it's to get specific. And so, if you just look at, on your notes, it says, I will, and it says behavior at certain time in location, right? And so, you know, like, if I were to read David's, kind of a formula for this, in Psalm 5 3, he says this: Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning, I bring my request to you and wait expectantly. So what does he say? In the morning, I'm gonna what? I'm gonna pray, first he's saying. I will pray when? Early in the morning, actually, it's in, it's that part. It doesn't say where, but the implication is, to be honest, in, either in his kind of lodgings area, or possibly to go to the temple. And so, he's saying, I'm gonna talk to God when? When I wake up, right? And maybe when David first gets out of bed, maybe that's the first thing we do, just, hey, good morning, Lord.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:15]:
I just present myself to you today. Right? Just start talking to God. Right? Maybe, an an an an idea of this getting specific might be, I'm gonna read the Bible and pray for 10 minutes when I get my first cup of coffee, right? Where? On my kitchen table, right? Or some of us I hear is that that I will read the Bible and pray for 10 minutes. Where? At my desk when I get into my office early. I've heard people tell me that. Right? So or when they sit in their car, when they leave at 5:30 in the morning to beat traffic. You know what I mean? So we we I just hear people say all all kinds of things. But if you have this, I will, whatever it is that you wanna do at whatever that time in whatever location, it vastly improves.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:13]:
91% of us will do the things that we we want to do. And so, so this is one of those things. And when you start doing those things, right, when you start doing those things, you can start stacking your habits to go deeper. In other words, that it's easier to start a habit when you're already doing something. Right? So like, for instance, if I say I'm reading, I read the Bible but I wanted to make sure that it's easy for me to read the Bible but if I don't think about it, sometimes I don't pray so much, right? I'll write, I'll listen, I'll get something, but then I don't really pray. But if I say, And after I read, I will pray for 5 minutes, right? Where? At my kitchen table, or the sofa where I normally sit, or I don't know why, lately I've been, I've done it in my office now at home. So, you know, sometimes it just depends, right? But I don't know why I'm moving around in my house, but, you know, just one of those things. Or, or maybe then I can say, not only will I read, not only will I pray, but I will journal.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:30]:
It becomes easier to stack on things that, on top of things that you're already doing. And so, when you think about areas that you want to, you know, make a change, maybe, you know, it's just that you wanna be more helpful, around our own house. Maybe you say, when I'm done with dinner, I'm gonna take my dishes to the sink, right? So, and this illustration that I'm sharing is the very thing I want to tell my kids to, this is yours, that this is, this is your goal. No, but, and when I take my plate to the sink, I will clean up the table and put away all whatever food is left over, right? Because when you're doing, if you do that, you know what would become easy? Then after I put away my leftovers, I wash the dishes, right, or put them in the dishwasher. But you start going off of but if you don't start with take my dish into the sink, then generally, nothing else gets done, right? So start one habit but once you start that habit and you start getting the habit, it starts to get easier to stack on top of the habit. And then sometimes you just, you know, like, what these are, what these habits are are basically, programs for you, right? They're they're guideways, pathways for you so that you're not always thinking about it all the time. So you're not just, going off on your impulse all the time, right? So for me, one of the things that I do is that when I want to buy something over, like, to be honest, I used to say 50, but now I don't consider because things are more expensive. Now I say 75.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:13]:
When I want to buy something, over $75, I first either talk to my wife, so we can talk about it, just, it might be text, it might be a call, might be just, hey, you know, like a simple thing, and then if I don't, then often I say, I'm not going to buy it on the first pass. Because you ever want something so bad, and then you buy it, you go like, what did I buy this for? Right? I don't know, I just was in the moment, I was in the store, I was on this website, or yeah, it looks super cool, but what do I need, a titanium ax or what, you know what I mean, But I want it at the moment. Right? And so maybe that's one of those things that you set up some kind of a pathways for yourself with some guidance. Right? So some of us, you you say, it's just start simple that you wanna eat healthier. Right? So just when I eat, I'm gonna I'm gonna start with a plate of vegetables first. Why? And some of you heard me talk about it. It's good for your blood sugar, but it's also what? It's just good for you. I know plenty of people who said I don't eat vegetables.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:24]:
Like, literally just to say that. But, I think, you know, I know there's all kinds of diets, carnivores or whatever, but here's the thing. You start with some guideline and it'll help you. How many of us ever struggle with our mood? Yeah, okay, like, yeah, like, 6 honest people in the house, right? I think all of us at times, we struggle with our mood, right? Maybe one of those things, let's say, when the phone rings, because you ever get a phone call, you're just like, that was the last thing that you wanna do is talk to somebody on the phone. This maybe you say, it's like, you know what? Before I answer the phone, I'm just gonna take a breath and smile and then answer the phone. No. I mean, I'm I'm serious, right? Because it sounds better than what? Right? It sounds better than, like, go. Right? I've had people like, oh, sorry, it shows me off, like that kind of response, like wow, I expected hello.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:27]:
But know, I understand, you're busy. So here's some but sometimes we we have some things we think about in advance that we develop because then they become habits, habits become part of that process that God uses to to change us. Why? So we can reach our potential. Right? When, researchers analyze people who appear under more self control you ever look at some people, it's like, bruh, I don't know how they do it. Like, I was talking to a friend that, he said his dad is the kind of guy, he just he smoked for like his whole life until one day when my friend was already an adult, he says his dad said, I'm just going to quit, and he just quit. And he was like, but I don't know how he I just don't know how he does it. Do you ever feel like some people, they just have like way more self control than than you or just an average? And there may be some people, but this is what they found, researchers found. They were looking at this aspect of self control.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:28]:
Instead, what they found was that people who just appeared like super disciplined and self control were actually better at structuring their lives in ways that made it, not so important that they had to always exercise self control. In other words, that, let's say, that if every time you face something and you're trying to, say, eat better, but you find yourself surrounded with cookies and chips and all these things all the time, that instead of them just looking at that, they say, no, I will not. This doesn't fit into my diet. Instead of them doing all of that all the time, instead, what do they do? They clear the table, right? They clear out the pantry so that when they go home, it's not facing them in the front of their face all the time. And so they structure their life so that heroic levels of discipline are not needed all the time. Because if you require always this this this crazy self control to not eat this, to not drink this, to to to not eat that much, whatever the case, to be honest, you know what happens? You exhaust it. But if you structure your life in such a way that, yeah, those things will come up, but it's not something that you face every single day. What are we doing? We're just in some ways, we're doing what scripture tells us to do and tells us about the nature of our temptations.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:08]:
It says it like this in 1st Corinthians 10:13. Let's read what it says. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. Isn't this comforting? That everybody gets tempted. Right? To be honest, most everybody want to overeat. Right? Most everybody want to eat junk. Right? Why? Because it's it's programmed that way. I don't know if you guys know this, but food scientists, they actually have done this food companies, figure out the exact amount of salt, oh, we gotta add more salt, and sweet and fat in this thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:44]:
So when you eat it, all these pleasure sensors in your brain go ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, and so that you don't want to stop eating. It's by design. A lot of this processed food. That's why we eat. Like, why do people want to eat Twinkies? I have no idea. But somehow, it does it for some people, right? And so this is why I said the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. But what? And God is faithful. He will not allow temptation to be more than you can stand.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:18]:
When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. So one of those things is if I'm an alcoholic, I probably shouldn't go to the bar. Right? If my struggle is, you know, every time I go to the store and I see, you know, all the junks, that I probably shouldn't go to the snack section when I go to the supermarket, right, and just stare at all the chips and cookies and just, no, no, I'm not going to eat it. Just see but no touch. Right? Then, yeah, yeah, I'm just going to smell the aroma. You can take the bag. Right? And it's like where it starts requiring, they said, heroic levels of self discipline at that point, right? So I've said to young couples who are dating who want to stay pure, I said, you know, hey, if you struggle in that area, you're just a human. Right? You're just a human.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:33]:
But, I tell you that the way of escape is it's hard when you guys bolt naked. Right? And at that point, it's hard. So that we gotta you you gotta figure out some stuff before you get to that place. And we just talk about, at times, having safeguards for yourself. Right? And and I've I've talked to sometimes, I've talked to my kids. It's like, do do we have a line? Do we know what our line, what's a safeguard? Right? Because if you want to go beyond the line, you're just being a human. Right? But is that what God wants for you? Right? Because God sees our potential. He says there's there can be more.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:16]:
So the temptations around our life are no different from what others experience, but God is faithful. But the way often is to avoid the temptation. Structure your life so that you're not continually confronted with temptation. Because people who do that are the ones who who are able to structure their life a little bit better. Because habits are tied in our brains to certain cues. And so even though you can break a habit, it doesn't mean that you forget that happened. Just like some people say, I can forgive but what? Not forget. Yeah.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:55]:
You know, your your brain doesn't shut off just because you forgave somebody. And we were talking about, the other day, we were talking about cigars. I'm not a smoker by any, stretch of imagination. I never have really been a smoker, but when I would go camping with my friends, right, like somehow out in the woods or at the beach or whatever it is, like by the fire, just was a nice time to smoke a cigar, right? And, and I just thought about that and and then, when we start talking about going camping and then my son and different things, you know what the first thing I started to think about? Like, oh, that would be a nice time to go smoke a cigar even though I haven't smoked a cigar in years. Right? Because some things that certain their certain environments, certain cues, they just they'll bring you'll be reminded. And so it's not that I can never go camping again. It's just that I need to be mindful that, like, not to bring cigars when I go camping. Right? Not to go buy before I go do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:08]:
So, we need to be aware that sometimes what are cues and the triggers are. Because when you can use those cues, for good to grow the habit, or you can use it or if you're not careful, it will it will be bad and and kind of, bring us down the the wrong road. I'm gonna share this a little bit about somebody that I saw when I was buying a gift for my wife. I saw Imelda in the music store buying a guitar. And and I just said, wow, Imelda, is that for you? She said, yeah, it's my gift. I'm gonna learn guitar. And I said, oh, that's awesome. Listen, like, just before Christmas, right? So yes, I was buying my wife's gift just before Christmas, and I was going looking for an ukulele.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:00]:
And, and this tonight when we came in, I saw her playing and I saw her playing the E minor and there was some other stuff and going from just court to court, just so that I can, like, wow. I said, have you played before? She said, no, I just started. You know what I know about Imelda, where she stores her guitar, is not putting her guitar in a case in the closet. Is that true? I never asked you, well, how do I know that? Because if the guitar was in the closet, out of sight, out of mind, she wouldn't be able to do what she's doing at this stage of the game. So what do you do? You put it on a stand in your office. You put it in a stand in your living room or whatever, so you can see it, right? So that's a cue. So when you see it, oh, so I got 2 minutes, I got 5 minutes, and then you can just practice for 5 minutes, right? If you can't sleep at night and you want, what's the habit, what's the thing that you start doing and you want to be better in sleep? I take the phone and I put it away from my bed, right, so I'm not watching videos all night or scrolling all night. Or maybe I leave it in another room altogether.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:16]:
Right? And, and you won't have blue light in your eyes all night. And so if you find yourself spending too much money on some hobby, stop reading about all the reviews, about all the gear that you, you know, you're dreaming about. Right? It's like, oh, there's this $10,000 bicycle. Like, I mean, right? Like, people overspend because we read all about this stuff, and we just want to do it. So, right. So these are the kind of things that we do to to prep us, to help us in developing these habits. There are different things. Start small, right? Don't make this giant, I'm going to lose £50 and compete in Ironman, triathlon or whatever.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:58]:
Like, you know, that might be an ultimate goal, but start. Like, if you just said, I'm going to lose £1010 in like 6 months or whatever it is, to be honest, you might get there sooner, and then you can just add, right? You can just add. But how discouraging the first time you do that and you cheat, and you go, like, I'll never lose any weight, and then you quit, right? So this is the thing that starts small. It'll allow you to go further. And, so I just wanna ask you you this. What's one habit that you're working on, just for yourself? You don't have to say anything. What's one year one habit that you wanna work on developing this year? Right? Just think to yourself and just I am gonna do x. Well, just write it on your notes if you have.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:50]:
Right? What is that called? Statement of intention. You might not have a whole thing yet where you go, and I am gonna do x at this time and this place yet, but that's the next step that you do. What's one habit that you're working on that you wanna curb or you wanna break this year? And just write that down. And then you can start thinking, like, on the ones that that you're gonna break with some cues, with some situations that make it where I'm always late when, or I'm always overeating when, or I'm always spending more when, that you can think about that. I always spend more when I'm on Amazon late at night, you know, whatever the case. Right? You start writing out because those are the things that you start to try to change. Right? So you clear your cabinet. You do those things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:59]:
In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear, who kinda sets out some of these things, he said this. It's been said that we imitate the habits of 3 different groups in life, those who are close, the many, and the powerful. Right? And so, you know, those who are close, right, those who are nearby to us as well as those who are close to us relationally. Right? The many, the group, the office, the gang, right? The, sometimes it's the culture. Right? The powerful, who are they? The people who are successful, right, that we often want to imitate, that if you desire to be successful, right, if you want to make money in real estate, then you look at this guy who, you know, who's flipping houses or whatever it is. If you you you wanna be a, you know, a better fisherman, then you look at guys who catch fish. Right? So CEOs like Elon Musk begin work early, skip breakfast, divide their time into small manageable tasks, and so sometimes people read about that, they go like, I'm going to do that, right? I'm gonna, like, get up early or I'm gonna do these things or other inspirational people. But, we we look at people like that, and what is the reason? It's because we're social beings, right? That people affect us and we affect other people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:24]:
And so, we need to be also mindful that you gotta gather with people to help you develop or to break habits, that so you don't have to just do it all by yourself at times. You guys ever notice that when people start saying, like, some little slang that that sounds so stupid in the beginning, but after a while, you start saying it, especially like you teachers, right? Because you hear all the kids, like, right before, like, oh, that's before it was, oh, that's dope. It was like, that was good. I was like, oh, that's cool, and slang changes, I forget. I hear these things, like, I don't even know what you guys are talking about. It sounds so dumb and the next thing I might be saying it myself, right? But, you know, one of those things that I didn't grow up saying, like, when I come home, I didn't grow up saying, I'm home, mom, dad, I'm home. You just come in the house. Right? But you know, when I got married, my wife said, oh no, when you come home, you say, I'm home.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:31]:
And in fact, in Japan, they just say it in Japanese, right, because they're in Japan, right? So, they say, tadaima. That's all that means is I'm home. And not only do you say that, the person at home has a response. What did they say? Welcome home. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, that sounds good. You know, and so we say that, like when I come home, I say, tadaima. Even if the house is empty, I started picking up habits from my wife.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:03]:
My wife started picking up habits from me. So she burps loud now after she eats. No. I'm kidding. That's not true. She doesn't like that if I do that. So, but you end up like, you pick up habits from the people that are around you, and so try to notice that if there are people who are doing things that you like, then, yeah, hang up, hang around with them. Right? And so and if there's some people, like, that's the whole part of the formula for AA or recovery groups is that you don't just say, I'm just gonna, you know, white knuckle it and just I'm just quitting this thing and it doesn't matter, you know, whatever it is that I go through.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:45]:
I'm just gonna do it all by myself. But all of these kinds of things that, you find that it's gathered together with other people, that you're not the only one, that you find that that temptation is common to man, right? So we we find that these kinds of things, you know, in general, that says that that even if, you lost weight, right, if you lost weight, that says, oh my gosh. Sorry. I didn't really notice the time. I should have been looking at the time. But, that if you lost weight, that, 33% of the time that your partner will lose weight, if you lost weight. Or if your partner lost weight, 32% of the time you're gonna lose weight. Right? At the same time, if you gained weight or your best friend's gained weight, it says 57 percent of the time you can gain weight.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:36]:
So, sometimes we we want to be, mindful of those things because we're social creatures. I'm gonna try to wrap this and cut out some things. Just to say who you hang around with matters. And I want to say this that that sometimes we start thinking, I think, that certain things are unbreakable, but it's not unbreakable. There was a study that was done by the psychologist, was it Robbins, Lee Robbins, that she studied Vietnam vets that were addicted to heroin, during the war, and they were surprised. And if you ever watch any of these war movies, from that time, they often show that, like Apocalypse Now and, studies were found later that 37% of the military that was stationed in Vietnam that was fighting in the jungles was had used heroin. They said 20% of them were actually kind of dependent on it. And so they wondered what was going to happen when they tried to get these guys off of heroin, and they were wondering, is this possible? Because heroin's an opioid.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:02]:
I don't know if you guys know this, but it's highly addictive, and people have told me, not necessarily heroin, but when it's about opioids, man, it makes ice it makes ice look like nothing compared to to that. And so they thought, like, it would be hard for all these vets when they come home that, you know, how are they going to deal with this? They're just going to keep falling. So they're talking about the recidivism rate, because they would try to work on them before they were kind of discharged and released from the military. But one of the things that they found was that in the 1st year after returning back stateside, only 1% became re addicted to heroin, although 10% had tried it had done it at some point when they came home. And they were they didn't understand. Well, wait. How is it so low seeing as how addictive the heroin is? And the conclusion they found was that when they reentered society, the conditions that they were in, the people that they were around was just like their regular friends and their family. These weren't the people that were already addicted to heroin.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:25]:
And so they weren't active drug users. So they didn't have the same conditions. They didn't have the same cues. They didn't have the same temptations, and that they were able then to kind of break free. And so you gotta find you got to find a tribe in a group, your people, that you can sometimes break things with and sometimes you can grow things. You know, I just want to to say this, that I want to challenge for some of us here to find a small group. I would love for you guys to find a small group in our church. We call them life groups.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:08]:
But even if it's not, if you then start one at at work. Start one with your friends. And, be in a place that get together with other people who want to grow in their faith, where you can support one another, encourage one another, because even in a group this size, I know that you're not going to get what you need in terms of encouragement and fellowship, and this is, you know, Saturday is a smaller size service. But, we need that where you can let your hair down. You're gonna need that place where you can be known and know other people. That you're gonna stand together. You're gonna encourage one another, speak truth to one another, pray for one another, be in God's word together. And maybe you laugh and you cry together in the ups and downs of life, and that's why we call them life groups, because it will change your life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:05]:
It will help you. It will give you power to change. I guarantee you, if you've never been a part of a small group, what you'll find if you find you go to any small group, you go to 1 in our church, you won't find perfect people, right? They'll all be flawed. They all have their weaknesses, but I think you'll also find people who will love you, who will encourage you, who will accept you, who wanna grow and reach your potential in Christ. And so that's why we do and it's like, to be honest, if you wanna start a group and you need a little bit of guidance, let us know. We'd love to to help you in that process. Maybe something that you start at school or something that you start at work or or something that you start, you know, at at home. Invest an hour to a week to to develop those relationships that are moving in the right direction, and I think you'll find the difference it'll make in your life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:08]:
Let's bow our heads. We'll close in our word of prayer. Father, I know that we wrote some intentions on our paper today, some things that we're hoping to do, some things that we're desiring to do, and Lord, there's great power in hope, but in developing habits that help us change, sometimes we need a little bit more than hope. We need a little bit of structure. Lord, we need to know when we'll do something and how how we'll do it and where we'll do it. It'll help us. For some of us, it's things that relate to our profession. To some of those things, it's just it's nagging things that happen in our personal life that we know we have a higher potential, and we need to make some changes in order to reach that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:03]:
And so, Father, I thank you that you said that no temptation that we face is any different, but it's just it's a common experience. All of us will face them. But Lord, I thank you that You make a way of escape. But so often that way of escape is structuring our lives away from temptation. So help us to take steps, Lord. And we can begin today. Father, we can be strengthened today. Father, we can take first steps today to build good ones and to break bad ones.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:41]:
We just ask for your empowerment. In Jesus' name, God's people say, Amen? Amen. Hey, God bless you guys.