Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
Hey, you know, I hope you guys are doing great this evening, and if you're not, I hope you leave better than when you came. We're actually concluding the series we started a few weeks ago. We're just calling Better Together and the Power of Community. We began this series really talking about this aspect of that who has your back. We're talking about the fact that as the people of God, as we gather together, as we are involved in each other's lives, that there is this capacity to get stronger together as friends. And last week, and we talked about how there are different kind of arenas that you need to be developing these relationships in. And at the same time, we talked about last week how when you get together, sometimes you notice differences. Anybody ever notice that the more you get closer to somebody, you see that we're on board, but to be honest, sometimes we see certain things different.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:53]:
And we talked about how you maintain that spirit of unity is to focus on the essentials and not so much on the non essentials, right? That we, in the essentials, we have unity. In the non essentials we have liberty, but in all things we have charity. And it's not really trying to see somebody's mistake or differences as a reason to question their heart, but as a way to love our brother and sister. And so this week we're talking about, though, the community that we can experience in the world. Because to be honest, if you've ever been a part of a small group, you've ever been involved in a ministry, a team in some kind of a way, that sometimes we're in, there we go, like, man, it's so different than the way it happens in the world. And, you know, I was talking with somebody this week, he had a run in with somebody and, you know, somebody was yelling at him and calling him out on this thing. And it took him by surprise, right? It took him a little bit. But also as that was happening, you guys ever noticed that sometimes your hand is doing this, you know, as the voice is getting elevated.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:07]:
Not that, you know, anything happened, but that sometimes we forget that maybe if you're involved, you've been together in the church, that it's often so different in the world, but that our love for one another is one of the greatest testimonies and apologetic there is to tell the world that God is living. And so this evening we're going to take a look at how we increase our impact together as we close. And we're going to be looking at Matthew 5, 14, 16 in a little bit. But I Think we understand that when Jesus called us, we talked in the last few years, weeks, the fact that Jesus prayed for us, that he called us to be a people who were unified and in that unity, that we would love each other as the Father and Jesus were connected and to share that love. And we're going to take a look at some of these passages again in light of where we're at. But before we go any further, would you do me a favor? Let's stand in reverence for God, reverence for His Word. And we're going to read that together in Matthew 14, 5, 14 and 16. Ready? Let's look together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:23]:
And ready. Let's read. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. And, you know, I don't know if you've ever been in this kind of a place that you're driving and something catches your eyesight off on the side and something shining in your eye, or maybe you've driven by and just the car window, the way the lights hit it, especially if there's tint on it and it just kind of catches your eye, you can't help but look at it. I was driving that way, and there was like a massive. It was like the whole wall was reflective.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:08]:
And it was solar panels, right? The solar panels. Just the way the sun was hitting where it was and the whole thing. And it was unmistakable. But I couldn't, like, look directly at it. But something about it is. It's that we all are called to reflect the light of Jesus. We're all called to reflect the light of God. And when you're all by yourself, yes, it is visible.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:33]:
But, you know, when we gather together, when we work in unity, when we walk toward a greater purpose, it becomes, he says, like a city set on a hill. It becomes unmistakable. And so do me a favor, before you're seated, turn to your neighbor. He says, hey, let's do this together and you can have a seat. You know, a few weeks ago, or actually a few months ago, at this point that my. I had to get my car safety checked. And when I got my car safety checked, you know, they do all these tests and, you know, everything was generally okay, but the technician pulled me on the side and he says, hey, you know, one of the things University of Yamaguchi you got to do is you got to make sure that you take care of your headlights. And I said, oh, my headlights burned out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:23]:
He said, no, no, no, they're fine. The bulb themselves are fine. But to be honest, they're so yellowed. And I knew that they were oxidized, right? I knew that they didn't look crystal clean like a brand new car. And you know, that's what happens. Car that you're driving, rocking is like 21 years old, but sitting in the sun. And the thing is that he said that and I knew instantly what he was talking about, but he said this, he said, you know, sometimes they get so oxidized, it's not that the light that is shining is any different, but it cannot penetrate, right? And it starts to hinder. And so, you know, I was always thinking, I had bought a headlight cleaner a while back and you know where that was? On the shelf, right, of course, like that I hadn't taken it out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:14]:
And so then the other week my son said, dad, I cleaned your headlights. I go, oh, why is that? He said, because they looked horrible. And when I went out and to be honest, I knew it would be better. But it almost looked new, right? Not quite. It almost looked new. And the thing is that when I drove, I noticed the difference immediately. At night, right? And the problem isn't the fact that there wasn't a light inside, it's sometimes what it has to pass through. And so in this passage that we look at, it says that when somebody lights a lamp and they put it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:57]:
They don't put it under a basket, they don't hide it, right? But he says that they let it shine in all the house. Sometimes we're not aware that sometimes we have things blocking that. Now sometimes you may be in a situation where you go like, oh man, you're in an environment and for you to stand for God makes you look super different. In that case, sometimes you guys ever, we go like, well, I'm not going to hide the fact that I'm a Jesus follower. Just not going to say anything right now, right? We get in this place, but God is calling us not to hide our light, that we're called to be a light around us. And when we're in this kind of a place, he says that yet sometimes you're going through and the longer you are, sometimes maybe in a season, a season that's been tough, a season that's been challenging, a season that you've been busy, man, there's a film that builds up kind of like on the headlight of our lives. And. And it's not that there's not a Light that's trying to come out, but sometimes there's a little bit of resistance that it goes through.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:05]:
And so this is what Jesus said in John 17. It's not printed on your page, but you'll see it on the screen. You can take a look in your Bibles, John 17, 20, 23. He says this. He says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, and so that they may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me. And you know, when it says that the world may believe, it's underlined there. Why? Because that's the whole point, right? It's that when God works in his people in a unified sense, it is so that the people would believe, other people, the world would believe.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:52]:
And the glory that you've given me, that I've given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and you and me, that they may become perfectly one. So let's read that last part together. Ready? Begin. So that through that, the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. And so this sense of unity is not just so that we're unified. It's not just so that we feel good. And we hope that you do. We hope that you are unified.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:23]:
We hope that you do feel better. We hope that you do get stronger. And. But it's a testimony to the world that God not just loves us, but he loves them. And so why do these people choose to follow Jesus? Maybe they start asking, why do these people go to church? Why do these people live differently, believe differently? And it begins a process. But sometimes when there's a film that covers your light, sometimes when there's something that's blocking, we need to be reminded that you got to clear those things that choke out the light. Right? We have to clear those things that. That choke out the light.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:03]:
Jesus told the parable of the soils, or the parable of the sower that sometimes is called. We find it in Mark, chapter four. It's repeated in Matthew, chapter eight. And in that we see, you know, he tells the story about the farmer who goes out and he's trying to plant seeds. And so some lands on the rock, or, I'm sorry, on the road. And it says, the birds of the air come and eat it up because it wasn't covered. And then some fall on the rocky places, some in the Thorns. And some in the good soil.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:34]:
But of all the different ones that are sown, of all the different ones, it's really just a good soil. It says that bears fruit 30, 60, a hundredfold. And it just talks about just kind of the abundance of, of kind of a fruit, that it's come from that seed. Everyone else, that there's something that's gotten in the way. And when he talks about that third one, he gives this in the explanation in Mark 4 he says, and the others, right, the ones that are sown among the thorns, let's say thorns, right? What are thorns in this case? It's like weeds, right? Weeds. And it says those that are, they are those who hear the Word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the Word and it proves unfaithful. And in this parable that Jesus has been telling, the seed that's sown is the Word of God, right? It's this, it's the gospel, it's all of God's Word, right? And some people, when they respond to that, that it not only changes their lives, but they end up influencing others for Christ.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:46]:
And then it says some don't, right? That some they start well, but kind of fade in the heat of the day. Some receive or some they hear it. But as soon as they hear it, it's like the enemy just takes that away. It steals it away. And then for others it says it just gets choked up. But here's the thing. The problem isn't with the Word, right? The problem isn't with the Word. The Word, he says, is a powerful thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:19]:
The Word is a dynamic thing. In Hebrews 4:12 it says this. For the Word of God is living and active. Let's say living and active. What does it mean? It's dynamic, right? It has a life that it can engender life in the hearer, right? It is active, it is moving, it is devout, it has influence. And it's sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. It doesn't. When we read the Word, the Word is not something we just read.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:59]:
The Word reads us at times, right? So sometimes we got to get the Word in our mind, sometimes we got to get the Word in our heart. Sometimes we underline the things in the Scripture. But sometimes the Lord wants to underline something in our heart. So he's saying all of these Things that God is able to do this because it's the same word, but a different soil. It's like we can all go to the same movie. We can all see the same show. We can all go to the same, you know, see the same act or comedian or musical group. And some walk away will say, that was amazing, right? And some go, eh, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:43]:
Same same word, same song, same same movie, same same act, but a different response. The problem isn't with the act, right? The problem isn't with the song. The problem isn't with the show. Alexander Denager says this. He says, when the flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower, right? And so sometimes what we need to understand is that God is saying that there's things that are in the way, and it's not because the word of God is any different. It's not that it's weak. It's not that it's incapable. Sometimes there's things that we need to do so in order to have the greater impact in us, and then it can have the impact through us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:36]:
What's one of those things? How can we shine our light a little clearer? Sometimes we have to grow in knowledge and character, right? Something. We have to grow in knowledge, in character. You know, when I became a believer because I wasn't raised in the church, I didn't know really how. What it meant to be a Christian. And I thought everybody automatically was all goody goodies that when I went to church and I didn't fit in that category. And what I found out was that, yeah, everybody's nice. But to be honest, when you get to know people, everybody's got something, right? Everybody's. Nobody's perfect, right? Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor, says, it's okay.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:14]:
Everybody has something. So, you know what you're saying. It's like, I know you. No, I was kidding. But, you know, and. And you know, when we're in that kind of a place, that sometimes we don't know ourselves. Because I didn't know that some of the things that I was doing weren't really pleasing to God, right? That I was a kind of a rebellious young man. Like, maybe some of us that you're growing up, you know, you think you know better.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:37]:
You know, like, maybe sometimes I had a hard time following the rules in certain kinds of things. But this is what it says in Philippians 2, 14, 16. He says, do all things. Let's say all things without grumbling and disputing how many of Us. That. That sounds like how it works in our house. Oh, like, I was hoping there was a laugh. Not just that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:00]:
Ooh, that one stung. Right? But, like, how does it work like that in your workplace? Is it in your school? Is it like that? And, you know, in your marriage or whatever? I don't know. Right. But do all things without grumbling and disputing. And when I read things like this, I go like, wow, wait, grumbling is a big deal. And then you start reading in the Scriptures and you see over and over this. This aspect of grumbling, how the people of God couldn't enter the promised land. It says in First Corinthians 10, because they grumbled constantly.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:32]:
And it says God was not pleased. You know, I didn't know that. I just thought that's what local people do. We grumble about something, right? We grumble about the line. You grumble about, like, how late the thing you grumble. We easy. Like, our culture likes to grumble about stuff, right? I didn't know being argumentative wasn't good, right? When I read the Scriptures, like, hey, like, no problem in fighting for the truth. But it says, be careful.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:00]:
Don't go into endless debates and argue. And, you know, like. But that's what we used to do with our friends, right? And then what happens is the word of God is not just something I should read, it should read me because it was surfacing things in me. But why does it say, do all things without grumbling or disputing? So that you may be blameless and innocent. You can start cleaning off the lens, Children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as what? Lights in the world. Lights in the world. So he says, that light that's on the hill, that light that is set on the lampstand, that it's a light in the world holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Now, you know, when we start letting God shape us, it makes a visible difference.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:02]:
It makes a noticeable difference, right? Maybe you don't look different on the outside, but maybe it. Sometimes it changes the way that we talk or it changes the way that we treat people. It changes the attitude in which we go to work. I've been in a place where somebody was saying, hey, this is my pastor. I've been going to the church. And he goes, like, I've noticed a difference in you. The response was, I've noticed a difference in you since you started going to church, right? That. Why? Because when we grow in knowledge, it starts to shape our character.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:44]:
And sometimes we don't realize that we have areas to change, areas to grow. Sometimes until something surfaces, something surfaces it or someone surfaces, it surfaces it. I don't know. That is a hard word for. To me tonight, I'm not sure what's happening, but. But maybe it's. Maybe you're not a complainer, maybe it's not your insecurity or anger, but everybody has something, right? And sometimes it happens, you know, like I've been in a small group where, you know, people are sharing about how they handled some things and. And when.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:19]:
To be honest, I was hearing about a friend who was in that place was challenged and. And hearing just somebody complain and complain about their job and how hard and what's going on in their life. To be honest, you know, sometimes I'm not the most patient in that kind of a thing. Sometimes I'm thinking, hey, we all have something, right? Like, I just want to get in and get out. But my friend. My friend said this. He said, man, you know, I used to. I used to like, really be bold.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:53]:
But sometimes, you know, just in life, you've been so busy, you work all these things. But since he started coming back to church, since he started getting back involved, he said, man, I need to kind of recapture that flame. I need to kind of fan that up again. And so he just said, would it be okay if I prayed for you? You know, the guy was shocked, right? He was shocked. And to be honest, in that moment, he didn't fall on his knees and say, what must I do to be saved? But the thing is, he knew that it was him that was shedding something in the midst of that, that he needed to kind of grow in his boldness again. He needed to grow in a sense that I'm not just going to judge people by their kind of response. You know, he's telling that story. You know what I started thinking? Like, oh, man, I better watch my attitude, right? In certain times.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:50]:
I better watch how I respond in these moments, right? And the reason is because the thing is that we're all looking for Jesus. People are looking for Jesus today. I think people are looking for signs of God's goodness. The Wall Street Journal a few months ago had an article that talked about how there's a growing demand for Jesus lookalike models in Utah, right? So that they're looking for that and then they hire them for photo Shoots. They hire them for all these things. Who hires them? Sometimes it's families that they want to have a portrait or a wedding announcement, and they want to have, like, Jesus in the middle of the portrait, right? And that kind of a thing. Or. And that they're showing up, they walk into a field with the kids, and it's like, then they want to take their picture with their kids, with.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:37]:
With walking with Jesus. And, you know, there are all different kinds of things. Sometimes it's Christmas cards, all that. But the thing is that, you know, every follower of Jesus may not look like Jesus. Look at your neighbor. Do they look like Jesus to you? Right. Yeah. Maybe not on the outside, right? Maybe not on the outside.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:56]:
But the thing is that I think every person can look more and more like Jesus. Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside, right? In our character, in our response. And the thing is that we are all called to look more like Jesus, right? That you're not perfect when you come to the Lord and you're not going to be perfect when you go to be with the Lord. But, you know, it doesn't mean that you cannot change. It doesn't mean that you cannot grow. It doesn't mean that you cannot look more and more like Jesus, because that is the call. In Ephesians 4, 13, 14, he says this. This will continue.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:35]:
Let's say the word continue. What is this? It's an ongoing process. It's an ongoing process until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord. So we can all mature, right? We can all grow. We can all get better. We can all get stronger. We can get all more mature, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. And then we'll no longer be immature like children.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:02]:
And the thing is that although you don't look like Jesus on the outside, you can definitely become more like Jesus in character. And when we do, when we grow in knowledge of God and in character, that we start having a greater impact. The problem is that life has a way of choking it out, right? Life has a way of covering it over. Maybe when you're overworked, right? Maybe when you're. You're, you know, you're hanging out with friends who kind of pull you in the wrong direction. Maybe it's like we get, like, so caught up in our boyfriend or a girlfriend or school or kids or hobbies or Netflix or social media or whatever, videos, right? But the word of God is alive says, right? The Word of God is alive and it can cut through the clutter. And so we need to be a people that when, when the light is finding a difficult time to, to shine through, we don't cover the light, right? We don't say, well, I'm going to wait till a different day. I'm going to wait.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:09]:
Just, you know, what part of the time. Part of the time is that we need to persevere and build endurance in the faith. When it seems that you're not shining your light the brightest, sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes some of us, we say, I just want to say, you know, you know, close for business for a little while, right? It's like, you know, we'll be back in an hour, right? I won't just be mad for an hour. But sometimes what we really need to do is we need to build perseverance and build endurance in the faith that when you're challenged, that when you're stretched in those moments. It says this in Ephesians, I'm sorry, in James 1:22 4. Can we read what it says? It says it like this. Let's read together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:58]:
Ready? Begin. Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity. Let's say opportunity for great joy is our troubles. Great joy? No, it's an opportunity. It says, right? So some troubles are more troublesome, right? Like it's one thing when you're driving around and you can't find a parking lot, and we all make the magic parking lot prayer, lord, give me a parking space, right? And then you drive around and then somehow you find a parking space and it's like, we're happy. But you know what, to be honest, like, even if it didn't happen, like, that's like a minor trouble, right? That's like a Manini thing, right? What about when somebody gets a diagnosis? That's life changing. That's a totally different thing, right? What happens when somebody loses a job? That's a different kind of a trouble. And it's not saying that troubles are joy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:57]:
It says there's an opportunity. There's an opportunity for joy. How do we take the opportunity? He says, because when you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance, let's say endurance, has a chance to grow. In other words, it doesn't grow automatically. Just going through hard times doesn't cause anybody to grow. Just going through hard times. Because some people say, you know, I've been through the wringer in life and they're going to show you all their scars. You Guys ever get a place where you start showing scars and you're like, oh, yeah, let me show you the scar, right? It's like, we can show all of our scars, and it doesn't necessarily mean that we're stronger or better as a result.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:42]:
Sometimes you can see people say, no, I'm all over it. But to be honest, you guys ever been somebody telling you some story about their life and they go like, I don't think you're over it, the way you tell that story, right? And I think it's still fresh. I think you're still bleeding somewhere, right? And I think you're still poisoned a little bit. But he's saying this, but your endurance has a chance to grow. So then he says this. Verse 4. Let's read that last verse together. Ready? Begin.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:13]:
So let it grow, right? So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. You know, last week, I was surprised that some friends that I was on staff with Encampers Crusade together, like some 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago, they just called me up and they let me know they were in town, and they said, hey, we'll come by. And I didn't realize they were going to come last Saturday, right? So they showed up, we sat together. It was a great opportunity, but we got together after that. And when we did, you know, we were talking about all different kind of times and laughing and telling stories like that. But, you know, one of the guys who came over was a student when I was on staff and my friends were on staff, and he had since come on staff. He since become, you know, a pastor.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:11]:
He's been pastoring out in Hawaii, Kai, for the last, I don't know, 20 years or so. And so he's not a newbie himself. But, you know, when you're like, a little bit, Maybe there's a five to six year difference in age. When you're 15, that's a big difference. Right? Now when you're like 30 or 45, six years, that's nothing. But at that age, he wasn't 15 or 16, but maybe he was 18 when he came in, right? So guys who are like 24, 25, we're like, wow, like, these are men, right? That was kind of the feeling. And he said, you know, we totally looked up to you guys. And he said that it was like the time of our lives.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:02]:
During that time, you guys impacted us. And so we're hearing stories like that. And they were telling about some of the other folks that they had met that people we administered to in that season. This is like 30 years ago, right? But to be honest, when I had seen them, I know my friend's stories, and they've been through the ringer, right? They just told the story about this one guy, and he's a local business icon in Hawaii. He's very well known in the business community. But when we got to meet him, he was just a kid from Kona, and smart kid, bright kid, athletic kid, but he came to Jesus. And sometimes we think coming to Jesus means everything just gets better. And some people say it's just the easy up and up, and sometimes you have that elevation, but frankly, it's never just like this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:03]:
I just remember after a couple years, he lost his girlfriend in tragic, tragic way. She lost. Lost her life, man, everybody was like, worried about this guy. How is he gonna hang with something like this? A young believer, just a couple years old in the Lord. And, you know, he just. He held on, he kept growing, he kept moving. And then a few years later, he went on his first mission trip. And we're talking about this last night.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:35]:
It's like, man, I can remember that this was yesterday. And it's like he's going on his first mission trip. They're going to Russia, which this is just as the Iron Curtain is falling in the 80s, right? And the thing is, as they're on the plane, somebody comes, not knocked on the door, but they're in the plane and says, excuse me, can you get off the plane? We need to talk to you. And, you know, his friend went with him and the whole thing, and he found out just as he's going on a mission trip to serve Jesus in Russia, he's told that his dad, his stepmom and his sister were killed in a car accident. It's like everyone's like, everybody is like that. And everybody's wondering that the guys on the plane, they. They still had to go. He stayed back.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:36]:
To be honest, they're gone for like five weeks. But everybody's wondering, is this guy going to be around when we come back? Right? Is he going to be. You know, they're doing their best to stay, stay in touch. But, you know, when he got back, one of his. One of his best friends that got together and said, how are you doing? And this is what he said. He said, I gotta just tell you that just the grace of God is amazing. He's not pretending like he's not broken and devastated. He's not pretending that, like, everything is all good, but he just said, the grace of God is just amazing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:22]:
When he's telling the story, my friend's telling the story last night. He said, man, you know something about the grace of God. He says, I'll never understand because at that point he was just 22 year old guy himself, that 23 year old guy himself, right? Single and all that, right? So he's saying that and we're all standing, we're all sitting around the dining table and I just said, you know, Dave, but since that time we've all known the grace of God, haven't we? That all of us at the table, my other friends were sitting at that table, lost a child the year after they left Hawaii. And we all knew that this was going to happen because she was born with a condition that, that was medically, you know, there was nothing that they could do. But we loved her, we loved them. When they left, they had to grieve the death of a child. And when we were sitting around the table, they persevered, they endured. They held on to the grace of God because even in those times that were so difficult, they let their faith grow.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:49]:
And so sometimes you got to just hold on. Sometimes you just got to hold on to Jesus even when it doesn't even feel like he's holding on to you, but you hold on to him because he never let you go. Ever. But sometimes you only see on the back end how Jesus was sustaining you in that moment that was so difficult when you lose a child, when your parents are killed in a car accident. But you know, every one of those guys along the way God has used, why? Because they persevered. Because they never quit. They kept holding on to Jesus. And the more they held on to Jesus, the more they saw his goodness.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:41]:
Not just in heaven, but in the land of the living. So sometimes if you're in a place right now that you feel like, I don't know how I'm going to make it, that's an opportunity. But don't do it alone. Because all of these guys, none of our, none of my friends that I just were sitting on a table, we never did it alone. You gotta, you gotta hang together. And in that moment, the grace of God can be poured out. And here's the last thing. Here's the last thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:17]:
Use your talents, your time, your treasures to shine the light. Use your talents, your time and your treasures to shine his light. You know, sometimes we, we're in this place that we don't like. I don't know what to do, right? I don't know how to serve God. I don't know how to, you know, share the gospel. Maybe some of you do, and you invite people, you pray for people. You do all these things, and those are tremendous ways. You're using your time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:46]:
You may be using your. Your knowledge. Maybe you're using your. Your experience. Maybe you're using the scripture, right? That. That we use these things. That's powerful ways. But.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:59]:
But maybe, like my friend, that, to be honest, he had a run where it's not that he ever gave up his faith or, like, he's always been a strong believer. It's just, to be honest, he just got caught up, right? Work, working on Sundays and projects and all of these things. And. But what it reminded me of was he just let the Lord stir up that faith when it couldn't get through. In second Timothy 1, 6 and 7, it says, this is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you. He said, when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self discipline. You know, to be honest, it was kind of getting back in church, getting involved and getting connected.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:58]:
It stirred something. It was just being around people, you know, being. Being more connected somehow. It helped him to translate, to say, yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna step in, to be honest. And I had told him. I had told him, it's like, man, you. You're one of the boldest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:22]:
And, like, just. He's the greatest. Like, you know, the friends that when you go out, like, he's talking to the waiter about Jesus, right? We're in the movie theater, like, as young believers. We're in the movie theater. I remember I put my feet up on the. On the back of the seat that was right in front of me. We were in the second row. So I put my feet up on the seat in front of us, and the guy from the movie theater walks by, and he just looks at me, get your feet down.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:57]:
And I put my feet down, but then my face was like, you know, like. And I was super mad. Like, to be honest, I was a new Christian, still kind of new right in the Lord. And I wanted to have a conversation outside with this person, you know, and. And then my friend, he just. He put his hand. He says, you know, my friend, he's. He's pretty patient.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:24]:
But to be honest, everybody can get pushed beyond their thing, you know, so you might want to be careful this. The way that you speak. He started doing that. And he started saying, you know, Jesus. And he started telling this guy. I was thinking, how the heck you went from trying to talk me down from being mad to telling this guy about Jesus. Like that's how the kind of guy he was, right? And he just remembered, you know, I have a gift. I have a desire.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:49]:
But to be honest, sometimes I've just been so busy. Work, kids. All right, everybody gets busy at times. But he stirred it up. Where's God stirring something in you? It's God stirring, reminding you, letting that get into a flame. He says this because when we're gathered and we become more like Jesus, we learn how to love him. We learn how to love one another in that way. Then it says, let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:31]:
Teach and counsel each other with all wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. You know, the other thing is that when we do things together, when we use our time, when we use our talent, when we use our treasures, our finances, when we use these things for the glory of God, sometimes we'll get to love people in a way that is so profound that they ask you why. Reminds me of when Jesus met the woman at the well. In John chapter four, you see this story, Jesus is. Is out in the hot, the heat of the day, right? He meets the woman, and when he sits down and he asks her a question and he starts talking to her, her first response is like, whoa, why are you even talking to me? Right? Because we come from different sides of the street. They had racial divisions, they had religious divisions. They had social differences, right? They were different.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:42]:
But Jesus just kept pursuing this lady. He began to tell her about her own life. And when she did, when he did, he says that, you know what? That I have a life. I have a strength. I have a vitality. It's like living water. And he says, and she wants what he has. Sometimes when we cross enough barriers, the wall of race, the wall of social or economic or educational or background differences, when we cross those things, political differences, sometimes people ask you why.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:40]:
A bunch of years ago, we were going to Indonesia. Chad. Chad's been on that team a bunch of times. I remember going. And we were on this tiny island that was called the Forgotten island, island called Tanake, in a little village with like 30 families. And we're coming and we're. You guys remember. Some of us remember that we were building water catchment systems in this place, and the whole village and the whole island was Muslim.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:18]:
And we bring Stuff, and we bring equipment, and we paid for all this, these water catchment systems to be built. That's what you guys did. You guys gave in that way. And to be honest, we're having a reception on that first night. The number one question over and over and over again from that village was, why do you guys come from America to do this? And they're in their thinking. In their thinking, you're thinking, are you rich Americans? And I wanted to say, I can show you my bank account. I am not rich. But the reality is, compared to them, compared to them, I was.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:02]:
I'm not subsistence living, right. I'm not catching fish so I can eat today. Right? Like, no matter. For most of us, you. You might be on a lean time, but generally that's not how you have to survive, right? For most of us. And all I could say when he was asking me, he says, is, Jesus wanted to come. Jesus wanted us to come because he loves you, too. And it's because we got to love them, serve them, work alongside them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:35]:
That in the middle of the night, when we're away from everybody else, like, the village chief's son gave his heart to Jesus because we got to shine a light. Is it because the away team that went on that trip, guys like Chad and Tim and Troy and a bunch of guys who normally come to this service. Yeah, Troy, there you are. Is it because we were the major. No, we couldn't do this. We couldn't do it all. It's because the church, the family of God, brought that. We just were the away team.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:17]:
But there were way more people on the home team that sustained us, that prayed for us, that gave, that walked alongside, that helped people along the way, or like every month when in and out of this place, food pantry happens, right? And sometimes I was under the illusion that in the beginning, people will be so grateful that when you do the food pantry. And sometimes they are, and sometimes they're not, but every once in a while, there will be people that say, man, this was just such a blessing. This is such a blessing. Or the youth challenge that happens every fourth Sunday, like, so tomorrow, right? And these are kids that. That weren't thriving in a traditional, normal school. And so for some of them, this is kind of like the last chance to graduate from high school. And so it's very structured and kind of a place, you know, it's. It's not necessarily.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:27]:
Sometimes people have thought, like, these are the bad kids. No, it's not like that. But sometimes they have challenges, sometimes they have some family Stuff going on. Sometimes they have all these things. But you know what? When people come alongside and pray with them, lead them to Christ, share the word of God with them, man, you see them light up and maybe you've got to meet a bunch of them on some of our events that Jane loves and invests in those kids and so she wants to mentor them. But you know what? She can't do it all by herself. She does a great job. But you know what she wants? She wants them to meet you guys.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:17]:
They would be welcome, that they would be loved. Or maybe a lighthouse that's going to be happening, we're going to be talking about in the future and on a night that is so often symbolic for darkness, spiritual darkness. On Halloween, right? You can pretend that the day doesn't come as a Christian, because that day is just the day of the devil, or we can shine our light in the darkness. To be honest, we choose to shine light and we don't participate. You know, we're not celebrating Halloween. We're using that time to shine the light of Jesus. But every time we do a lighthouse, whether it's at Mohoy's house or Uncle Ben's house or it's been the Robards, my house, and different houses around the community and different houses I think are coming up on this round as well. There's people that come by and they'll say this, thank you so much.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:19]:
Thank you so much for doing this. You know what? I bring my kids every year because there's just something different about this place, right? There's something different, that spirit. And maybe, of course it's well lit, it's not spooky, it's right. We're not doing like this is not Disneyland. We just have a few games, right? We playing, you know, music that is uplifting. We're giving candy to the kids. We're trying to share, not really by word because there's no time for that. There's so many kids at times, maybe something to bless the parents, right? Maybe some time to maybe have a significant conversation.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:04]:
But we can do these things together. Not because it's one person, not because it's a handful of people, but because we partner together, then you can make a bigger impact, you know. In 1957, a graduate student from Columbia University named Gordon Gould was working on this high energy states and working with atoms and how he was thinking, what can we do with this? And Gould elaborated on his ideas and he thought maybe, you know, that light has such a tremendous power to move so quickly. What would happen if all of that energy was focused in some way and not just spread randomly, but it was concentrated into a beam? And in his notebook he named that yet to be invention, a laser light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. I'm so glad we just call it laser today, right? That's a mouthful. And now, some 70 years later, or close to 68 years later, we know that those things are used at times to destroy a malignant cell, to do a surgery that removes a blindness from someone's eye and taking out a cataract. It's used to measure distances, it's used to create products that would be almost impossible to do by hand in any kind of a way. The applications of this thing are so far reaching, but it happens when light that had been scattered is somehow focused.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:14]:
There's a greater capacity, there's a greater impact. And you know, the same isn't just with physical light, it happens with spiritual light. And so when you partner together, you. You say, I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna care about something, I'm gonna love people, I'm gonna share about Jesus, I'm gonna pray for people, I'm gonna serve people. Sometimes you see the impact right away. Most times. Most times you don't see it immediately. But you're sowing a seed and you sow enough seeds, you know what you're going to find.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:53]:
Things sprouting all over the place. That only happens when we work together. That makes sense. Hey, let's bow our heads close in order of prayer. Father, as we're here tonight, Father, we know there's a power in unity. We know there's a power when we're together. And we all feel that. At times we sense a camaraderie, we sense a support.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:23]:
At times we sense it's encouragement. In times, Father, sometimes we're feeling that connection. But I thank you. You say it can make an impact. It can make an impact and somehow it's increased. Father, when we let you change us, when we let you grow us, Father, that sometimes it's because we learn something. We learn that your ways are not always our ways. And so, Lord, we change our ways to line up with your ways.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:58]:
And that sometimes you're shaping our character. And if you've been in that place where the Lord's challenging you and you know, to be honest, when he's shaping your character, what we find is it's like one layer of an onion. Maybe you struggled with your anger, maybe you struggled with your words, maybe you struggled with Your attitude and the Lord's challenging you because he's working on your character. The reality is probably when you surrender it, when you. When you learn some different way of dealing with people, when you learn in some different way of responding, you look more like Jesus, but you're not perfect. You know what you find? It's like a layer of an onion. You pulled one layer away, there's probably still another layer. But over time, if you let him layer by layer, people say, man, that guy, he looks just like Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:02]:
And maybe some of us that we're in a season right now where you need to persevere, you're building endurance. And it's not because the things that you're going through are good. It's just an opportunity. It's an opportunity for good to come of it. We let him grow that, let it grow. When you keep holding on, you keep trusting, it's not going to just be like our friend. But everybody, everybody goes through something. And if this is a season right now, you're going through something hard.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:48]:
Would you know that the Lord knows you and he wants to strengthen you? And if that's you, would you just open your hand before him today and just say, lord, I just need a grace. I need a fresh grace just to. I want to hold on, Lord, that sometimes I just don't know if I have the strength. But Father, I thank you that you said that you hold us in your righteous right hand. And sometimes when we're looking around us, you say, don't fear because my righteous right hand will uphold you. It will strengthen you. Father, I thank you that when we can't even see at the moment, sometimes we see it at a later vantage point. How you sustain us, how you strengthen us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:36]:
And maybe some of us, you just need to jump in on someplace, use your talent, use your gifts, give up your time, invest something financially for the sake of his kingdom. Because it's together that when we work, we'll make a greater impact. Father, cover my friends. I thank you, Lord, that none of us can change the world all alone. Thank you. That's not what we were called to do. We were called to do it together. And when we do, thank you, Lord.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:11]:
We get better, we get changed, Lord, we get strengthened. And thank you that we get to share good news and plant seeds of the gospel everywhere we go. Bless my friends, Lord. Bless our church, Lord. Bless all of their investments for kingdom's sake, for your glory. In Jesus name, amen.