Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
You know, a few weeks ago, I received an invite, and I'm guessing you guys all get different kinds of invites. I got an invite in the mail, and it was to Ho'okele Elementary School, their production that they're doing for Newsies. Now, somebody asked me, what is Newsies? My wife leaned over, I said, I don't know, I never went. But, I was talking to somebody, just a couple days ago, and they said that, they just had gone to the Mainland and watched know, like a professional production of Newsies, and they loved it. And I said, well, I'm not sure it's gonna be on the same level, as that. But, you know, the thing is, we actually went last night, and, it was great to see, you know, I got to see, Kevin Reinke, the principal, and some other folks that I normally sit, at the school. I I got to see some people that I hadn't seen actually, in a long time, you know, that you just run into people at these kind of things. And, but when the when the production started, to be honest, we had a great time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:02]:
I was shocked, like, these kids can sing, they can memorize, like, a lot of lines. I had to ask, I had to ask some of the staff, like, well, when did they start practice? And, you know, been over the last four months, and they did an amazing job. I have a picture on my phone, but I forgot to, put it out. Maybe I'll share it tomorrow. But you know, I think we live in a culture where we get a lot of invitations. Right? You get you get invitations to birthdays, and graduations, and weddings, and baby showers, and housewarmings, all kinds of things that we get, in that way. Maybe even your friend hits you up, hey, let's get together, let's hang out, let's go catch a movie or a game, or whatever it is, and because we live in a culture that shares invitations freely. And whether you always go or not, I bet that for most of us, you're glad to be invited.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:50]:
Right? Because if you think about it on the other hand, have you ever been in that place where you say, Wow, we got together the other day. It was like phenomenal. We had dinner, the dinner was banging, and it's like they had entertainment, and he said, Oh, what was that? And he says, Oh, you didn't know. It. And you ever been in that place where you go like, oh, no. Right? Kind of sucks, right? Kind of sucks to be in that situation, because an invitation places value on you, right? It places value on the relationship, and the person who extended it, right? That they're not just doing it to be nice, but they're doing it because they want to share something with you. And even though our lives are filled with different kinds of invitations, big, some big, some small, that it's an invitation can impact the course of someone's life. And not just, you know, that they had a great time, not just that they had a, they were entertained for a while or had fun or blew off steam, but sometimes it's it can change people's eternity.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:53]:
It can lead to a new relationship that will infuse faith and hope and love in to somebody. And I think in these days that we're living that that's that can be challenging. I've been talking to people that that even if you've been hoping for change, that when change comes, sometimes it's a little unsettling, and suddenly we need a faith that's a living faith, right? How do you have a faith that has a living faith? You know, because the scripture talks about you can have a dead faith. A dead faith is that it's something that I understand intellectually, but I never act on it. Alright? I never do anything with it. But he says that we all need a living faith, and it starts with having a relationship with a living God, right? That we need a hope that endures, right? We need a love that is encompassing. But how do you get that, right? You you gotta respond and that we all have probably responded to that invitation. But I know that today, that, you know, if we were to talk and say, hey, are you inviting your friends to to come join us for Easter? Are you inviting your friends to to, you know, come to this thing where a bible study or whatever it is? Sometimes I what I run into is a little bit of hesitancy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:01]:
And and part of that is because maybe over the last few years, you've noticed that culture has changed. And and I'll be honest, I I agree. I think culture has changed. It reminds me of the the line that Dickens had in his classic book, A Tale of Two Cities, the one I never really read for, in high school, but that was the good thing about cliff notes. But, but it starts like this, right? It starts like this, it was the best of times, right? It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. And when I think of that line, it kind of reminds me of how it is today, that iconic passage, because, you know, we're living in times where there's sometimes great wisdom that's displayed and sometimes great foolishness. There can be times that are are, like, wonderful, and there can be times that are super difficult.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:58]:
And so, I think we can feel that today, and I think we do live in a more polarized society today, and sometimes people are very quick to kind of opt out of things or identify a certain kind of way, and there's confusion at times, right? It's a stressful season for many. But I want to kind of take a look at before we get into just the power of an invitation. And and I know that when I say that, and you guys have have little invitation cards, right, even in your your bulletin today. Right? You should be having like four or five, invitation cards in your thing, and and that we we want you to be able to invite people, but what does research say? What is that not just like your personal experience or my personal experience tell us? Well, a study was done over a 24,000 plus people from 2,000 to 2,023 by a group called the Barna Research Foundation, and they've come up with some some results that they found, and and there are two kinds of and maybe they fall into two categories. On one hand, there are some winds that are kind of blowing against us. It's like going into the headwind, you know, like, if you guys ever caught a flight, and they say, well, you know, it's really strong headwind, so it's we're going to be kind of landing a little late, it's taking us a little bit more time. Right? Because there's a bit of resistance. So, some of it, there are head cultural headwinds that we face, and at the same time, there are cultural tailwinds.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:32]:
Things that that can actually propel us forward. And so, the the the truth is there's both, in these things. And what what's some of the cultural headwinds that we're facing? Some of the cultural headwinds, are the fact is that there is a shrinking group of people who call themselves believers, who call themselves Christians today. That actually, over the last twenty, twenty five years, that it's been shrinking. The Christian identity, it says, is on the decline. In, twenty years ago, 82%, I don't know if you can see it, 82% of people just in The US identified, self identified, said they were a Christian. Ninety something percent, 91% said they believed in God. Right? And, and today, if we were to look at it, it's 63%.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:30]:
Right? So, there is a, there is a decline in the the amount of people that say they identify themselves as Christians. And out of those 63%, that out of that total I'm sorry, not out of the 63%, but 25%, of the population say that they they're Christians, they're believers in Jesus, and because of their faith, it shapes the reality of their lives on a daily basis. Right? So, it's more than 25% of the 63, it's just 25% in general. And in about half of those, America says, they believe, right, they believe, but it doesn't affect their lives. Right? That people have moved more towards kind of, blending with a cultural consensus, that if, there's half the group that consider themselves Christians, that they're saying, you know, well, you know, if the world says it like this, if culture says it like this, then I guess it must be okay. Right? And you fill in the blank, that they tend to kind of go the way of culture, regardless of the moral issue. So, those are some of those things that are, that are cultural headwinds. Right? And as a result, I think, sometimes we feel a hesitancy to talk a little bit about our faith or to share about Jesus, and because we sense these cultural shifts.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:57]:
And sometimes maybe there are issues that you know, what you never see is you never see, the fact that like a church did a food pantry in their community, but you do see when some pastor or some leader, falls, right? In some kind of a thing. So sometimes there's this tarnishing of authorities, there's tarnishing of believers in general, right? But those are some of the headwinds we face, and it is a real thing. But there are some tailwinds that are happening at the same time. The same research, looks that there is and shows that there is a rising spiritual hunger. Because as people have lived a more secular life, have they have we gone through this social experiment over the last few years of kind of like the more woke kind of a crazy, kind of a mentality that that I think there's been a sense that it hasn't really done what we thought it would do, and it's it hasn't come with a sense of fulfillment. And so there is but there is a rising spiritual openness, especially among young people. And their research, their statistics have shown that people are more open to God today. They posited this question, they pose this question to people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:16]:
How would you fill in the blank? Or how would you respond to this thing? And say, I am more open to God today than before the pandemic. Thirty four percent of boomers, that's the old guys, right, 60 to 78 years old, born '46 to '64, that they said 34% agreed with that statement. They said, yeah. I'm more I'm more open. Now, the other thing about it though is that they have also a large percentage that are already believers. So they were already seeking many of them. Now, the gen x ers, the gen x ers are, 44 to 59, you know, born from '65 to '80, forty three percent said that they agreed with that, that they are more open today than before the pandemic. And millennials, which are the 43, 43 to 28 years old, 54% say, I agree.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:17]:
I am more open to God today than I was before the pandemic. And Gen Zs, which are age 12 to 27. Young guys, right? Some from junior high basically to young adults, right, that 59% are saying they are more open to God today than before the pandemic. Now, something happened in the pandemic that I'm not sure if you're aware of is that up until the pandemic, we had been going through a twenty three year I'm going to go this way because the way you guys are looking at A twenty year plus decline in just overall kind of a spiritual interest, it was just a decline. But something happened in 2022 is that there was a change in the trajectory. It broke the trajectory, and people started to experience this greater spiritual hunger. And so, why is that? Because it didn't deliver what it promised. The things that we talked about, it's like you feel the world changing and you just say, well, I don't know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:32]:
Maybe you've just got to go along. And to be honest, it hasn't borne fruit. The mental health issues that have come as a result, anxiety of all of the changes, and isolation, and all these things that we know had happened. Right? But today, what is the result? The result today though is the same research tells us seventy two percent of adults are spiritually open today. That they're saying, you know, I don't know if I I don't know God yet, but I'm open. Right? I may not be a believer, everybody, right? Because it's not everybody's a believer today. Right? Of course, it was never everybody's a believer. 63%, but 72% I am spiritually open today.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:19]:
And sometimes, you know, the reality is that if you think that if I invite someone, if I talk to someone about Jesus, if I ask, can I pray for them? Sometimes you get, well, I don't know what the reaction. Anybody ever been there? You want to, but sometimes you I don't know what the reaction. The reality is they're probably not going to bite your head off, even if they don't believe. Because, to be honest, when I have been in that situation where I've asked people, can I pray for you? I mean, literally two times in the last at least thirty years, only two times have people. And I'm talking hundreds of times I've asked people. Now, I'm not like, my friend Hale, Doctor Hale. He's not here tonight, but, I've been talking to somebody, we were talking about it, and he was telling me that Hale was saying in his small group that he started to go he goes to the gym early in the morning, and he's like one of those guys, he's up there at like 05:00, and I'm just like, knock himself out. That's not for me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:25]:
But, you know, he's there and he's just walking up to some of these guys, some of these guys, you know, like the big scary guy in the gym, and he just chit chats and say, hey, can I pray for you? And the guy's like, what? Like, but he he lets some pray for him. And and to be honest, as a result, it's a little bit more like now, it's like when you see him, say hey, right? And there's a little bit of a bridge that happens. And the reality is that even if they don't agree, even if they never come, they're not going to bite your head off. It's not saying that you're going to get into this massive argument, or, you know, you're going to have to defend everything that, you know, why Christians have ever done anything throughout history. That's just not the way that the research plays it out. Now, here's the thing is that what does this really tell us then? What does this this research tells us? The research tells us that we got to make the most of our opportunities. A few weeks ago or maybe a month ago, I can't remember, I just we had a I felt like I had a word for our us in our worship and on the weekend, and just just in a prayer time, right, just in a worship time, and it said it like this in first Corinthians sixteen nine. First Corinthians sixteen nine says, a great door for effective work has opened for me, and there are many who oppose.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:49]:
Not but I had mentioned. Right? It doesn't say but there are those who oppose me. It's saying and. Because just because there are cultural headwinds, and that there's a little bit of pushback, it doesn't mean that God hasn't opened the door of opportunity. Right? It wasn't that way in Paul's day. It wasn't that way in Jesus's day. It wasn't in that way in the Old Testament. But to be honest, in every season, in every time, in times when there has been great revival, in times when there has been great persecution, that there is opportunity and there's opposition at the same time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:29]:
There's headwinds and there's tailwinds. You know that we need to make the most of the opportunities, not wait for perfect conditions. I love that the good news translation says this in Proverbs. He says, If we wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done. Right? And so, what do we do to make the most? Well, let's take a look this this evening in the balance of our time. We're going to take a look, at basically a couple stories of of how an invitation changed someone's life and changed someone's destiny. We're gonna be taking a look in John chapter one. And by the way, let me just ask this, is this helpful, this research kind of a thing? Are you guys interested? Does this make sense to you? Right? Because, like, a 23,000 people, a 24,000 people, that's a significant sampling size.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:22]:
We're not talking about, like, you know, the three people that I met. Right? So, that kind of a thing. So I thought it would be helpful for you. But let's take a look this this evening, and we're gonna read, together in, one forty and, of the gospel of John. And I'll I'll just start out, and I'm gonna ask you to join me in a second. So Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who heard what John had said and then followed Jesus. And Jesus is talking, and he's he's talking to John and James, and he calls them to to follow him, and he's speaking life into them. And it says this then in verse 41.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:04]:
Andrew went to his brother, Simon, and told him, we have found the Messiah, which means the Christ. Let's read together what the result. So so Andrew says, you know, I I had this thing. I I I was with John. I was with James. And to be honest, we found the Messiah. Right? We we found the Son of God. And this is what it says.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:26]:
Let's read together verse 42. Ready? Begin. Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, your name is Simon, son of John, but you will be called Cephas, which means Peter. Andrew's brother, when he heard about Andrew's experience, didn't say, Wow, can I come? Right? He didn't say, Wow, can I come? Right? He didn't say, Wow, can I come? He didn't say, Wow, experience, didn't say, Wow. Can I come? Right? He didn't say, Wow. What must I do to be saved? But you know what? When Andrew brought him, Simon was willing to go, right? He was willing. He said, you got to check it out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:07]:
I'm telling you, you got to see for yourself. When he told him that he met the lord, he shared what happened to him. And then Andrew took another step. He brought him to Jesus. Right? You gotta come with me. He invited his brother. Now, I'm sure Andrew had no idea what would happen. Right? Because if we know this Simon, before Simon met Jesus, his name was Simon Barjona, which means Simon, son of Jonah.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:34]:
And when he came, Jesus said, I'm going to change your name. You're no longer Simon. You're a rock. You're called Cephas or the word name Peter, right? So, this is Peter, the apostle Peter, right? His name is changed, but here's the thing is that he didn't see himself as a change. We know Peter was a stubborn guy. He was a a guy that often was kind of an aggressive guy. He's a guy that would sometimes say things and and then, you know, insert foot in mouth and then have to take it out. He he would be that kind of a guy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:11]:
And I don't think Andrew knew what the response would be, but Andrew said, You got to come. You got to come. And sometimes people surprise you, and sometimes they don't. But Andrew came. And it says the very next verse, it it happens again. So the next day Jesus decides to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. Let's say Philip. Philip.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:36]:
Right? So Philip's another, another guy. Right? Another family. He found Philip and said to him, come follow me. Philip was from Bethsaida, and Andrew and Peter's hometown. So they would have known each other. Right? So we've been to I've been to Bethsaida. It's not like a giant spot, you know. It's smaller than the block.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:54]:
Right? It's it's a it was a small village. It was a fishing village, and Philip went and took, to look for Nathaniel and told him, we have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Nazareth. And let's read what, let's read what, Philip's I'm sorry, Nathaniel's response was. Let's read what he said in verse 46. Ready? Begin. Nazareth, explained Nathaniel, can anything good come from Nazareth? Come and see for yourself, Philip replied. Right? It's like saying, Hey, come to the, come to my church in Waipahu.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:33]:
Waipahu? Can anything good come from Waipahu, right? Can anything come good from next to the old bar? Or whatever the case, right? Or you can say it's like, where is it? Oh, we're in Hookele Inn. Can anything good come in elementary school? I mean, it's it's that kind of a response. Right? It's not a really open response. It's not a very friendly response. But he says, come and see for yourself. And as they approached him, Jesus said, now here's a genuine son of Israel. When he saw Nathaniel, he said, now here is a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity. And Nathaniel's response is mystified.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:15]:
He says, how do you know about me? And Nathaniel asked, and Jesus replied, because I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you. In other words, you know what? God knows what your friend's life is like before your friend comes. Right? God knows what your family's life is like. And you know what? He's calling. Jesus is drawing people to Himself. But what's necessary? An invitation. An invitation is necessary. Because people don't just necessarily invite themselves along.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:51]:
Right? You guys ever, and sometimes maybe it's cultural, right, for cultural things. I was on the Mainland when I did the first mission trip that we would be, you know, like some local kids, me and another guy from Hawaii, we did a mission trip in Wildwood, New Jersey on the East Coast, and there were students and kids from all over you know, the Mainland. And two of us from Hawaii were there. And when we would be hanging out in the beginning, you know, sometimes people are gonna get in a conversation and your local style was back then, I would say, and myself included, is that when there's a conversation, I would wait for a break in the conversation if I'm going to say something. Right? I'm not going to be like, people are talking, Hey, you know this game, and I'm going to like just kind of talk over, Hey, what? No, no. You know what really happened? I wouldn't do that, right? I would wait for the break, and you say something. So you know what that meant? I didn't say a whole lot for the first week. And then I kind of realized that the mainland style in that place was that if guys are going to go out and a bunch of people, we would wait to be invited in the group.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:08]:
Right? But back then, up there, people inserted themselves. They would say, hey, can I come? And sometimes, maybe, you know, local style is like, you don't want to make somebody uncomfortable, you don't want to be someplace where you're not, right? But over the summer, I learned that kind of like mainland style, I'll just say it like that. And when I came home, I, you know, my girlfriend, my friends, I had a mainland style, so when people talking, I would talk right over, right? And then people would say, I would just insert myself. And my girlfriend said to me at the time, she said, Glenn, you changed. I said, I know, I got more outgoing. She said, no, you just got rude. Right? So I yeah, Oh, okay. Okay.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:51]:
Right. So, you kind of learn, you adapt again, right? But here's the thing, I think, that it doesn't matter what your style. It doesn't matter you have a main style, local style, whatever. But there's a little bit of a sense that sometimes maybe we wait, right? Sometimes we're holding off. People won't just come. I mean, how many of you have just, like, your family say, I gotta come to church with you. Or would, right? I mean, when does that happen? If you're waiting for that, it's probably not going to happen. It's generally not local stop.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:24]:
But Philip goes to his friend, Nathaniel, and who's a little bit more skeptical, right? He's a little bit more, you know, like, not easy to believe, but when he meets Jesus, he knows something is different. And Peter, when he met Jesus, had his destiny change. Right? Became a follower of Jesus, became one of the inner circle among the disciples, became later one who was sent out, became later one who who preached in thousands, and one day on the first day, after the church was born, that thousands came to Christ at Peter's preaching, and later became the head of the church in Jerusalem, all because somebody invited. Right? All because somebody invited. So this evening and the rest, I just wanted to say, let's think in terms of what's some what's four things that we can do to kinda have a more powerful invitation. Right? What's four things that we can do to have a more powerful invitation? And so I'm gonna just say the first thing is is this. Believe that Jesus can change lives. Believe that Jesus can change lives.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:34]:
And I just want to ask you this. How has Jesus changed your life? Right? How has Jesus changed your life? In our life group this week, you know, we were talking and I just asked the question. I have a life group in my home on Thursdays and so I just asked the question. It's like, Hey, when was the first time or you know, close to the first time when you were praying, when you became a believer that you prayed for something and you were shocked that actually God responded, you know. And people share different things, right. Like, you know, like I was praying for my husband to come and, you know, like, he wasn't really open. And somebody else said, you know, a different thing. And it's like I I was I shared a similar thing about like when, you know, praying for my brother and my brother said no to Jesus, and I just thought, like, oh, man.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:29]:
He doesn't have much time because he was sick. But he didn't change his heart, and called us back in, and he accepted the Lord. Right? So just different things, but here's what we've seen is that I've seen Jesus change people's lives, other people's lives, but I bet, like all of us, we've seen Him change our life. Right? Where we have more peace. Where we have a sense of, you know, I'm not so driven to accomplish because I need this to be important. But it's because we know the love of God. Maybe sometimes we say, man, I I gotta push forward. Right? Maybe our motives change.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:14]:
Sometimes you look exactly the same for some of us. That you some of you, you think that my story is so boring. Look, I don't even look at it. But the thing is that some all of us, you have a heart change. Right? Something happens on the inside. Think about the peace that he's given you. Think about the forgiveness that's been brought. Think about how he's helped you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:34]:
Think about how he's moved. Right? Think about how the promise of eternal life in heaven. It's not just for, you know, like for funerals. This is the thing that it's saying that you have a new destiny that you and I. Right? Consider what he's teaching you now. Believe that Jesus can change lives. Because some of those, right, some of those, to be honest, it's it's not the one that, you know, I I I did drugs, and I did all these things, and I went to prison and the whole but we have friends like that, right? That's their story, right? And you know, sometimes you think like, oh, my story is boring compared to them, right? Believe me, you rather have a boring story. If you have a more exciting story, God has a grace.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:24]:
And we'll talk about that at the end. But, we believe that Jesus can change life. Do me a favor. Turn to your neighbor and say, Aren't you glad that Jesus changed your life? Okay. Would you believe that He can change someone else's? Right? Because you know what? You were the person where a while back somebody was saying, Man, I gotta I gotta pray for you. Right? I gotta invite you. I gotta reach out to you. The second thing is this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:52]:
Recognize that God wants to use you. This is the second thing. Recognize that God wants to use you. When God entered your life and He entered on my life that, He brought us to a saving knowledge of Himself, right? It changed us, right? But He also knew this, that you have great potential. You have great potential. Do you ever turn to your neighbor and say, You have great potential? For what? I have no idea. No, I was kidding. But, you know, but he wants to tap into that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:18]:
He wants to use you to help do kingdom work. So just like that shirt said, that as one, that we are building his kingdom, not building our castle. Right? Not just doing it it for myself. Right? But can you imagine something that more exciting than partnering with God and seeing God at work? Because it's from the beginning that we see this in the scriptures, that when God calls people to Himself, He wants to do something in them, and then He wants to do something through them. A very familiar passage it should be for many of us, but it says this in Genesis twelve:two. Can we read this together? This is God's promise to Abraham. And although Abraham is the one who became a great nation, the principle is the same that we're gonna apply to the rest of us. Let's read what it says.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:10]:
Ready? Begin. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. Because the good news is this: God wants to bless you, right? Isn't that awesome? God wants to bless you? But let's just say, can we just say, Thank you Jesus, you wanna bless me. Right? Thank you, Jesus, like, it sounds like you guys don't really believe that right now, but let's say that like, let's say it like we believe it. Thank you, Jesus, right, that you want to bless me. But you know what the other half of it is? But that God wants to bless through you. Right? He wants you to be a blessing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:46]:
But you know what, if you're not blessed, hard to be a blessing, right? If you're not blessed, if you don't have peace, then it's hard toif your life is so overwhelmed and so that sometimes it's hard. But when you experience God, even in the midst of difficulty, you know what? Sometimes that's when you're a blessing. Sometimes it's not that when you have it all together. So I'm not talking about having it all together, but you know the grace of God in your life. Because God wants to give you grace so you can be a conduit of grace. God wants to give you truth so you can be a conduit of truth. God wants to give you life so you can be a conduit of life. It's not just arguing with people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:21]:
It's not just giving them the most biggest rationale and winning an argument. It's the manifestation of life in Christ. Because there's a purpose for you, and there's a purpose for me. And it doesn't matter where you came from, where you live, what you do for work, if you work at all, right? Whether you go to school, or you have friends, or whatever it is, that your life matters. And God can use your whole life. There's nothing in your life that God will not use. Sometimes, some of us, we think that God will use my great successes, and he can. But you know what I found? Sometimes God uses your greatest failures, right? Sometimes God even uses your biggest mistakes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:08]:
And the thing is that you are uniquely positioned to make an impact somewhere because of your background, because of who you are, because where you are in this season of your life, you are uniquely positioned to make a difference. Because the thing is that God can use you in your circle of influence or for us to draw people to Christ. Right? He can use you to invite someone. He can use you to pray for someone. He can use you to kind of meet someone in their point of need in such a way that the gospel will resonate with them. Just like Andrew and with Peter, and Philip with Nathaniel. People reach people. People reach people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:00]:
You're a bridge. Do me a favor. You turn to your neighbor and say, you're a bridge. You're a bridge. What is a bridge? Connects two things or connects two people, right? And without this connection, they would just they wouldn't be connected, right? You couldn't traverse in that so often, it's you're going to be a bridge to somebody else seeing Jesus. You're going to be that connection by which the power of God will go through because God uses people. And it's in a heart I love what pastor Wayne used to say. A mind can touch your mind, but a heart can touch your heart.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:41]:
When you let God use you, and you let give God your heart, anything becomes possible. But here is the third thing. You got to identify some of the people in your life that God wants you to be a bridge to. Right? That God wants you to be an inviter for, that God wants you to be someone who prays for these people. Once you you understand that God wants to use your life, that it's not like you gotta go across the ocean and go to Myanmar for that, right? I've been thinking a little bit about Myanmar because they just had this horrible earthquake, right? Some of you might have seen it, right? And so, you know, and I know that sometimes people, they want to do things, they want to do something important, they want to do something dramatic, and, you know, a lot of us were going to Myanmar before the pandemic. There were 28 of us were going to go at one time on the transition trip. And then the pandemic hit, and we couldn't go. And although now, the season, and because of all the things that are happening in the country, there will probably never be a mission team as big going to that location, because it's not, physically feasible.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:48]:
It's not security oriented feasible to do that anymore. But the thing is, you don't have to go there. Right? You can sometimes go across the street. Sometimes you're just going across the hallway. Sometimes you're just talking to the person who sits at the dining table with you. But here's the thing is that God wants to use you. So who does he want you to do? Obviously, I think he wants you to reach your family. Right? God wants you to reach your family.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:14]:
Philip reached his brother. I'm sorry, Andrew reached his brother. Is there someone in your family right now that just doesn't understand your faith in Christ? Is there somebody in your family that thinks like, oh my gosh, you just, what happened to you? You just went all Jesus on me, right? Sometimes that, somebody that needs to be invited in a thoughtful and, you know, practical way, right, begins thinking about the people in your life. Is there a family member who just, you're just, they just weigh in your heart, like like where they're at in life, right, where they're at in this season, you know, what their future looks like, or what their situation right now looks like. It just weighs heavy on you, right? And if it's weighing heavy on you, I guarantee you, it's weighing heavy on them. And maybe it's you're going to invite hang with? Or maybe, sometimes, it's the people that you used to hang with, right? Do they know Christ? Do they understand what a relationship with God is all about? And for us, many of them, they don't. Right? They see from the outside, and they try to look in a little bit, and what they see is you go to church, they don't see the relationship with God, right. So sometimes they'll say this, Oh, your religion doesn't allow you And I don't know about you guys, but I've told you I'm not a religious person, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:46]:
I'm not a religious person. That doesn't excite me to have religion. But the relationship, that's a whole different story. Right? And so sometimes they all need to taste and experience for themselves. But how does that happen? Sometimes it happens because we bring them to a place where they can. It might could be a small group. You could have lunch with them and explain the gospel. You could you could bring them to church.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:13]:
You could do whatever. There's different things that that happen. I I didn't actually get saved at church. I just I got saved at a campus meeting in in college, right? Or maybe the other one is your co workers or your classmates, right? People that you kind of traffic with more normally. Sometimes there's an overflow, right, where if you work and you go to school together and all these kind of things, and, but maybe, how's some people that you see the weight that they're carrying, right? Sometimes it's financial. Sometimes the ones that are, you're praying because of the relationships that are happening. And sometimes you, we're all these things that, are we open to inviting them to church? And I would say this, I'm so grateful that many of you guys, I hear you tell stories that, hey, can you pray for my friend at work? You know, we see them. The texts come in, and so when you guys send those things, we do pray for them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:11]:
Right? Can you pray for my neighbor? Can you pray for I mean, we do. We hear it all the time. You know, one, it's just somebody just trying to hold it together, you know, in the midst of work and in all of these things, and just so much stress happening in this person's life. You know, we do. We do pray with them. We do pray for your friends, and thank you for praying for them. But are we open to inviting them? Them? What about neighbors? What about the guy that you see in the gym, or the person that you see at Starbucks, or the one when you go to the store, you know, the person at the cash register, or wherever, you know, that the case that that would be. Like, what about the person who, who cuts your hair? Right? What about the person that, you know, that when you take your car in, and some of us, you got to take your car in kind of plenty.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:07]:
No, but, you know, those kind of things, right? What about the people who their kids play with your kids, right? It's soccer, or tennis, or football, or what have you, right? You know, I had a person that was cutting my hair that wasn't going to church. And so, I just, we were talking and we kind of knew a bunch of the same people and kind of had a bunch of, oh, yeah. I know them in this and this, but she wasn't going. And I say I had because she comes to church now. She's sitting at a table over there, but like and it's just because I just invited her. Right? And and you know the number one reason people attend church for the first time, and their willingness and and I still remember, and some of you guys still remember, the first time you ever went to church. I still remember the walk and I say this because I think about it a little bit, I can feel that same feeling. The walk from the parking lot to in the church, that was the longest walk, not because of physical distance, but because I was going to a place I'd never been before.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:29]:
I didn't know what to expect, right? And then when I would see people, I would think, everybody's all goody goodies. And then, like I look at you guys, I go, no, you guys not. No, just kidding. But, you're real people. You're real people. Good people. But none of us are perfect. Right? We all have mess ups and pains and things that we struggle with and just like your friends.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:55]:
It's just that we have an answer now, right? It's just that we have a shepherd now, just that we have a healer now. It's just that we have a leader now, right, we have a savior now. But it's because someone they respect invited them. And you know what? You're that person for somebody. You are that person. How do I know? Because if you ever get invited to pray at the family dinner, if you ever get invited to pray at the little lunch that happens for your work group, like, you know what? It's like you, you're kind of like I just say it like this, you're like the pastor of your job, of your office, of your unit, right? That's how they see you. Like if there's something that well maybe about God somebody passed away, somebody got sick, and he said, We should pray. But they don't know what to do.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:01]:
They said, Oh, can you pray for us? Right? Because they respect you. Because they trust you. So for some of us, the first time you ask them, they will come. Because 72% of the people, they're just spiritually open. And some, you're going to ask them, and they're going to say, yeah, and then they're not gonna show up. Right? Don't be discouraged. Did you go the very first time? I never went the very first time. I had to be asked over and over and over again till I finally ran out of excuses, and I said, Okay, I'll go.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:46]:
Why? So she would leave me alone. And I met Jesus instead. And I am so glad she never stopped asking. So you know what? I guess I know just from experience, just because people say no, doesn't mean never. Sometimes it just and I never went because I was looking for Jesus. I actually went to get her off my back. But God still used it. So, you know, sometimes people say this, I see people that, hey, they they're coming for all the wrong reasons.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:30]:
Because I've seen, like, guys come in for girls. Right? I've seen people coming for business contacts. I've seen people coming for all kind of reasons. Frankly, I don't really care because God can still use it. If you have to have a perfect heart before you come to church, nobody's coming to church. Best time for an invitation? Any weekend is fine, right? Except the one I talk about tithing. No, just kidding. But, but to be honest, there's something about Easter, something about Easter, whether it's still some of the carryover from culture or a spiritual dynamic.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:16]:
And I something about the power of the resurrection, something about the sacrifice and the power of the resurrection draws people. And that for at Easter, more people are willing because at Christmas, sometimes people are more busy. Right? More family stuff, more but something about Easter, people are willing to come. More people will will be willing to join. And that's one of the reasons again why we're we're even saying that on Easter that we're gonna make lunch, right? We're gonna provide lunch. We're gonna have something that because normally we do a potluck. Just it kind of helps supplement, and you guys are good cooks, right? But we're doing it this way just so that we can say just makes it easier that you don't have to say, I gotta cook something and then I go pick up my friend, or I'm gonna meet my friend, but I gotta come early because of this. We're trying to make it so that you guys have an easier time to be able to do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:16]:
But here's the person in need. The answer is yes. Right? It's both. In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus tells a story about a man who, a king actually, who has a son, and he wants to have this party to celebrate. He says, The kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by a story of a a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son, and when the banquet was ready he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all had an excuse to not come. And somebody was about their business and, you know, and somebody had this thing about family and somebody had this thing, and they had all these different reasons, but they did they made an excuse. And then he says this, so the king sent out people, and he said this, now go out, and I charge you, go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:30]:
So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike. Right? Because to God, everybody needs. It doesn't matter, like, what your past has been like. So the good and the bad alike. And he says the banquet hall was filled with guests. You know, when we invite or it's like this when we pray for God to do something in somebody's life. You know, maybe it's a healing. Maybe it's a need that's happening.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:07]:
I just want Jesus to get everything He paid for. He paid. He paid for your friend already. He paid for your family already. Right? It's already paid for, Already paid for. When you invite them, this is part of what we're doing. We want to bless them, obviously. But you know what else we're doing? Say, Jesus, we want to give You everything You paid for.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:32]:
And so it doesn't matter. Don't worry about if they come. Don't worry if they your job, my job is to pray and invite. And I leave the results up to God. Because sometimes they say yes the first time, and sometimes, you know, it's however many times, good and the bad. And all we want to tell them is basically, Come see for yourself. Come see for yourself. Just come check it out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:04]:
I'd love for you to come join us. And then we have a great celebration, but, I know that you will be praying for them when you do. You know, this week I, I did meet some folks I hadn't seen in a while, and, I just was asking them, hey, did you go to Japan? I do forget. You know, like, when you see somebody, like, was it you who told me this? Or I might be having senior moments now. I don't know. But, they said, hey, did you go to just come back from Japan? He said, oh, no, I didn't go to Japan. It's like, I couldn't go right now. And I said, Oh, how come? And, like what is it? Because he's I could just you know, you see somebody just like carrying a weight, and, and he said, Well, you know, let's you know, I work at Tripler and the whole thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:55]:
Oh, yeah. That's right. Federal. And I didn't realize, like I said, oh, yeah. A lot of changes affecting you guys. And he started telling me, you know, some guys got let go and some guys took retirement and somebody had a health issue. And in one, he's praying. He's thinking he didn't say praying, but I was just really thinking about this guy, and it's like he was like a dad to me, like a mentor toward me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:22]:
I don't know. I don't want to like kind of push, be pushy. And he's stuck in a hospital, you know, somewhere on the Mainland. And he just said, Oh, wow. Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. I said, Sometimes you just maybe you can just text him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:37]:
Just, Hey, I'm thinking about you. And then if anything I can do if they want to respond, they can respond. You know, they just know that you're thinking about them versus them thinking sometimes, Well, nobody would nobody thought about me. You know? And then we just said that, Hey, you know, I know you got a lot going on, but it would be great if you could come join us on Easter. And I usually carry, you know, these cards. I have them and I do I had it in my wallet, but I was in the gym so I didn't have my wallet. Right? And so I have this card and I started trimming it so it can fit in my phone. Because I always have my phone, and, I have, like, earphones.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:25]:
And so now if I see him again, I'll give him the the thing. But I think he was pretty interested because he said, where do you guys meet again? What time do you guys meet? You guys think you know, when they start asking you that kind of questions, They generally they're pretty interested. I remember when I asked this guy at jiu jitsu. And he said, hey, you guys have service in White Kelly now? I go, yeah. I just said and he go, oh, Kelly. I already knew the answer. And I said, yeah, we meet at 10:00. He already knew the answer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:07]:
You know what? That's, that's a sign that he was interested, right? And so sometimes you you feel a little nervous. You guys feel a little nervous when you invite somebody? Nobody likes to be rejected, right? Nobody wants to like feel embarrassed or whatever it is. I've had friends where our kids played soccer together and some where they played football together and I just remember, you know, playing and like helping with the kids and doing all that. It was fun and and all that. And I say, yeah, what are you doing anything for Easter? And say, Oh, no, or on the Sunday, and just say, Hey, just, like, come join us. We would love to have you, come just check it out. I said, Oh, okay. And then he came, and he brought his family, and his family was way smaller than it is now because now he has seven and eight on the way.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:11]:
But back then, it was just four of them. But Chad and Anelima Hoy came. This is because we played, our kids played football together. And we talked story, and I just said, hey, would you guys come? And I remember Anela saying to me, I just remember that day that when I said yes to Jesus. And and I thought I was a good person, to be honest. And it's not that I said, you know how horrible sinners you guys are, but just that, you know, when the Spirit of God touches you and you start recognizing your need. And, you know, I was just that God loved me. God was calling me, and it didn't matter.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:05]:
And it changed my life. And it just happened because we played soccer we played football together, our kids. So you know, wherever you go, however you meet people, their lives matter, and you're blessed so you can be a blessing. That makes sense? Let's bow our heads, we're closing a word of prayer. Father, I thank you that sometimes it doesn't mean that we have to know all the theology or all of these kinds of things, but it's like, Lord, that we love you and that we love people. And Lord, there are times and places to learn and to present the gospel, and there will be those times that for for each of us, I believe in the future. Well, there's so often it just starts with an invitation. It just starts out of friendship.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:10]:
It starts with us talking to You. And Lord, I think for most of us, our deepest desire aside from us knowing you and being in your presence is Lord, we want our our family. We want our friends. We want the people that we love and we care for. We don't want them to face you in a time where they will be ashamed because they never knew you. Lord, we want them to know the grace and the mercy that we have received that would they receive. I just want to ask you this evening, do you have people that you are praying for, actively praying for, and going to invite this Easter. And because I think that it would be great for you to write some of those names on.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:06]:
Start praying for them and pray for an opportunity to invite them. So often it is I have been times where I never seen anything. I never had the opportunity to invite. And then when I start praying for the opportunity, oh, my gosh, then the person shows up. You know, and then I see the guy I haven't seen in a little while. And then there is like a dead time now where we can have a conversation. Sometimes it is just like a minute. But pray for an opportunity.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:42]:
Because God changed your life. He wants you to use your life to change someone else's. So father, would you go before us today? We're lifting up family members. We're lifting up friends. God, we're asking would you start would you start drawing them? Would you start silencing the enemy's voice so that they can see you really? Lord, I thank you for some of these conversations I've had with people that I've been praying those kinds of things for and just seeing them so interested in them bringing up the topic. I thank you that you respond. You move and we do what you tell us to do. And, Father, thank you that you tell us to pray, but you tell us to to bring them in.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:26]:
Good and bad, in the highways, in the byways, Lord, the ones who are near and the ones who are far. So would you bless your people and give us a boldness, God, to go and a bold love to go with it. In Jesus' name we pray. God's people say amen. Amen. Hey, God bless you guys.