Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
We're continuing our series on money matters. And so we're going to just read together. It's the same, same verse that we want to just memorize, and hopefully that you guys can memorize it by now, but. Philippians 4:19. Would you stand with me? Let's stand in reverence for God, reverence for His Word, and remembering where our supply comes from. It doesn't come from the government. It doesn't come from my job. It doesn't come from my tal.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:32]:
Comes from Him. Let's read what it says. Ready? Begin. And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. And, you know, what does it speak about? Speaks about that it might be funneled to you through a job. It might be funneled to you through an agency.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:59]:
It might be funneled to you through your business. But. But God is the supplier. And this is what he's saying, that I know all your needs. I know all the things that plague you. I know all the things you're worried about. And God says this, hey, don't worry about tomorrow, but we put our faith in him. So before you seated, just turn to your neighbor and just, you know, give him a handshake or hug and just tell them, hey, aren't you glad God is really your supplier? And then you can have a seat.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:28]:
God is really your source. Right? You know, and I. And I think, to be honest, I know that. Not to say that everybody has overabundance, but I think, to be honest, most of us, you know, we have more than we need. For most of us, you know, that you may not have more than you want, but you probably have more than you need. Because how many of us have looked in our refrigerator and said, I have nothing to eat? And then there's plenty food. I hear that sometimes from my kids, there's nothing to eat in this house. I say, what are you talking about? You just don't want to eat the things that we have, right? Or you're too lazy to cook, or that maybe you've looked in your closet and it's like, you know, it's filled your closet or your drawers are filled, and you go, like, you look at that, and what do we say? I have nothing to wear, Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:22]:
But you have, like, way more clothes than you can ever wear, right? At least my wife tells me I have way more T shirts than I can ever wear. Or I do. And, you know, I think for most of us, we do know again, this has been a challenging time for many people who've been stressed wondering where you know that when the government shutdown will happen, when they'll get paid and that you've had that pressure. We understand. But for many of us, I think that it's still been a season that to be honest, we're wealthier than most of the world, right? If we. If you have to go to the bathroom and you don't have to go outside, you're doing pretty good compared to a lot of the world, right? If you have to go to, you're hungry and you go to the fridge or you go in your cupboard and there's something to eat or something to defrost or whatever it is, you're doing a lot better than a lot of places in the world that if you need to get somewhere, you go outside and your car, you have a car, to be honest, you're doing better than a lot of the world. If you have to, you know, get something to drink and then you can turn on the faucet and get a drink and actually drink it and not get sick, you're doing better than a lot, lot, lot of the world, right? So we are more wealthy and blessed than sometimes we can imagine. Because if you've ever traveled around the world, we've been to many places where none of these things are true, right? They don't even have electricity, don't even have a refrigerator.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:53]:
They don't even have. We've been in those, ministered in those places and sometimes still they're filled with joy. Sometimes they're still filled with a sense of fullness. But in the Bible, you know, the Bible often, especially in the Old Testament, kind of associates at times that the blessings of God were manifested in material well being, right? That there are people like Abraham, who the Bible clearly describes as very rich for the standard of his times, that he had silver and gold and animals and slaves and large herds and other kinds of commercial activity that he was well off, right? So some guys say this, it'd be like having $100 million. I'm not sure if that's, you know, the right proportion, but he is way wealthier than probably anybody else in, during his time in those places such that basically when he wanted, he basically had an army, right? It's the same with guys like Job, Job was very wealthy or King David or Solomon, right? But the Jewish writers were also aware that not everybody who had wealth had good standing before God, right? Because they over that time Even in that time, they understood that wealth could be acquired illegitimately, right? And so all too often, even the prophet Jeremiah wondered, lord, why do the wicked prosper? Lord, if you're so righteous, why do the wicked prosper and the faithless live at ease? And so obviously, God's blessing can show itself in the material wealth, but sometimes the material wealth itself is not an indication of the blessing of God. And the fact that if we struggle, it doesn't necessarily mean that God doesn't want to help us. But sometimes what it shows us that we need to get on God's side of the equation with this thing called money matters, right? Because when we get in God's side of the equation, that we can receive his promises, walk in his promises, and receive his blessings. And so there's a few things we're going to look at this evening, but the first is this, just remembering that, you know, God blesses what is given, those who give, right? And I love what Jesus says to us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:18]:
He says in Luke 6:38, can we read that together? He says this, give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to. To you. Last week we read in Corinthians where it says, you know, that those who sow sparingly will reap sparingly, and those who sow abundantly will reap abundantly. And so the same kind of a process that comes from Jesus, Jesus himself said this. He says, give and it will be given to you. And.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:57]:
And then he gives this illustration and he says, it's like if you were to ever have a sack, right? And you're trying to fill that, whether it's with sand or somebody's, let's say, poison, pouring grain or whatever. Probably you never poured grain, but you might have dug sand at the beach or something. But the thing is that when you're filling the bag or if you've ever tried to fill something, that what happens when you fill the bag partly somewhere along the way, don't you just kind of have to shake the bag, right? Because why do you do that? To kind of redistribute that thing? Or you open up a box of cereal and then it says this, it. It says that contents may have settled in shipping, right? In other words, that thing was full when it left the factory, but it looks less because it just got compacted over time, right? So he's saying this. Why do we do this? So you can fit more in the sack, right? So he says, so shaken together, pressed down, shaken together. And then what running over the picture that God says is that the blessings that I have for you are not just so that you can survive, but that you can be blessed and that you can be generous, right? And so there is this aspect that God wants us to understand, because giving isn't about sacrifice. It's about trust. It's about faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:24]:
It's about recognizing God's heart and God's priorities and trusting in him and that we want to honor him and that God doesn't need our money. How many of you guys know God doesn't need your money? Yeah, God doesn't need your money, Right? God doesn't even have a pocket. No, but I mean, you know, the thing is, right, so God is the Spirit, but he doesn't need our money. Now, obviously, the ministries that we do, of course, those things are funded by money. But the thing is that Jesus doesn't need that. God doesn't need our money. God doesn't need me. God doesn't need you, Right? But to make a difference in the world, we all need to work together, right? To make a difference in the world, we need to continue to trust God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:00]:
And. But this is what he's saying. He says, I can bless you. And Jesus always has an ability to multiply what you have. Let's say the word multiply. And what does that mean? Multiply what? Multiply means not just add one, right? That's a different thing, right? That's addition. But to multiply means to kind of exponentially change something 2 times, 3 times, 4 times. Where once Jesus was with the disciples and they were preaching, and Jesus was preaching, and there were thousands of people, says at least 5,000 people at the time, and 5,000 men.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:36]:
So, you know, everybody, you know, commentators said if you count in women, kids, all that stuff, easy, 12, 15,000 people plus, right? And it says Jesus, when. That. When he had all these people and he's finishing preaching, the disciples are like, oh, this. Like, this is what I hear. Are we ready to wrap up? Because we got to let these guys. But, right? And he says, like, let them go home so they can eat. And then Jesus said this. He looks at them and he says, you feed them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:04]:
And you know, the first thing their response probably would be like, your response if Jesus said that to you, you feed them. Like, with what? Where is this coming from? Right? They asked, like, even if we had a year's salary, it wouldn't be enough to feed all these people, until a little boy comes up and says, you know, Lord, I have five loaves, I have five little pieces of pita bread, and I got two dried tilapia, which is really the fish that they had at that time, right? So alawai special lunch? No, but you know, and he said this, he gave it. He says, can you do something with this? And, you know, John brought that to Jesus. And what did Jesus do? It says, he took that and he blessed it. Let's say he blessed it. And then what happened? He started to break it and tear it. And what happened? That it multiplied. And it says, not only did everybody eat, right, and was full, it says they had leftovers.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:12]:
12 baskets, right? And you know what he did with the 12 baskets? He didn't say that they collected that and nothing would be wasted. But where did this happen? You know, some commentators that don't believe that God can do miracles said, oh, when he did that, then everybody just busted out their own lunch. That's not the point of the story, right? Sometimes people want to explain away the supernatural provision and abilities of God. This is not like everybody just brought their own bento, right? God has a capacity to bless the giver and what is given, right? He has a capacity to extend it. Because Jesus has that power of creation. He has the power to create wealth. He has the power to create health. He has the power to create joy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:08]:
He has that power to create. And it's not the disciples, right? If not, it's so important because when he asked them to you feed them, what was their tendency? It's like they calculated. There was an analyzing. And anybody here ever was presented with a problem, and then you just keep analyzing and analyzing and analyzing and think about it. And then you get paralyzed. Analysis paralysis, right? You have this problem. It's like, oh, man, if I do this and what if this happens and that happens and. But when it's given to Jesus, there's a capacity to multiply.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:44]:
Now, God blesses. We said what is given and those who gives. But he does give us some instruction about this, that we get on God's side of the equation. Because God instructs his people to give their first and their best, right? Let's say first and their best, right? What is first and their best? It says this like this in Proverbs 3, 9, 10. And I just started reading. I read different translations in the Bible. Sometimes you look at. There's different, you know, letters on the ends.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:15]:
ESV is the English Standard Version. I've been reading that for A while. And somebody gave me this Christian Standard Bible. And it's another pretty literal translation, but simple. And I just used it. So that's what CSV stands for. And he says this. He says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest, right? And so what is the first produce? That's the.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:41]:
That's the first fruits, right, that come up. Some of you guys remember when my wife grew these little lemons, growing this lemon tree, man, that thing was on there seemed like a year before we saw this little fruit. And it just stayed like the same thing forever and ever and ever. And then finally got to that place where it got big and finally got. That place got yellow. And then, you know, when we took that lemon off the tree, man, that thing was the juiciest, best lemon that I ate. I mean, that we use in cooking. And I squeeze over the food, and it was amazing, right? Because what happens is, I guess over time that the lemons got a little bit smaller and little bit smaller.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:27]:
And so he says giving the first, it's just like pineapple. You guys ever notice that about pineapple? Other fruits, that the first crop is the biggest, pineapple. The second pineapple is a little bit smaller the next year and the next one, and then by that they dig it up, right? So he says giving the first was equated with giving the best. And so, you know, when he talks about this, that God says that if you want to get on my side, right, and be blessed and have the thing that you give, be blessed, would you give the first and the best, not the leftover, right? Because the leftover is not the best, right? The leftover is often the leftover, right? And so. And so this is what he says. The second thing he says about this, I think, is we talked a little bit about it in Second Corinthians 5, 7. He talks a little bit about in Second Corinthians, talks a little bit about the fact that it would be on the first day of the week and that you shouldn't give under compulsion, right? Because God loves a cheerful giver. Let's say cheerful giver, right? Be happy about it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:32]:
Like, give what you can and be happy about it, right? And God doesn't need you to be like, oh, my gosh, I gotta do this. But biblical giving is regular and systematic. It talks about, right? So there's a regular sense about it. And understanding God's directions and promises when it comes to giving says this, that give and it will be given. But why does God Ask us to give anyway. Why does God even ask us to give in the first place? Because part of that is we're God's children, right? We're God's children. You're God's son or daughter, right? And when you have kids and he says this, I'm going to meet all your needs according to my riches. So that the image we get is God who owns everything and everything belongs to him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:21]:
He says, you're my kids, I'm going to provide. Now if you had a child at home and you were the provider for your kids, right? Let's just say this. And you give them everything they need for all their needs and then you know somebody's going to come over and then you just want them to help you clean up and say, hey, can you help me clean up? Because you know, so and so is coming over. Uncle so and so, Auntie so and so is coming over. I need you to help clean up. And then what if they said to you what you can give me first? How many of us would like what, right? What would you call that? When somebody takes and takes and takes and takes. But the next time you ever ask them, they ask like, well, what's in it for me, right? I don't need to do anything. I just need to receive, I don't need to give.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:19]:
What do we call that? Spoiled, right? For most of us and you know, God is raising sons and daughters to be kingdom minded. And part of that is that we're not spoiled, right? Because if he says this, I will supply all your needs. But we also need to learn how to give, to be a contributor, to be a part of something, to participate in the family business. What is the family business? It's the kingdom, right? Because you're son of the king, you're a daughter of the king. So he asks us, would you be part of invest in the family business, right? And so what he says then is in Deuteronomy 14:23. I like how it says it in the living Bible. And this is the end of 1423. It says it like this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:14]:
Let's read what it says. Ready? Let's read. The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your life. Because if not, you know what can happen? We can put his gifts first in our life, right? We can put our ease first in our life. We can put our desires first in our lives, right? So we can put our priorities and has nothing to do with God's priorities or God. And so he says this. But we're part of the family, right? This part of the family endeavor. And so he says, this being giving teaches us to be responsible people of the kingdom who participate in the family business.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:00]:
Now, when it comes to this thing, the scripture uses that word tithing in Deuteronomy 14:23. And we'll see that word tithing also kind of come up. But the biblical standard of given is. Is the tithe, or 10%. That's what the word tithe means. Tithe means 10th. And so in Leviticus 27, verses 30 and 32, it says it actually, really clearly in this translation. Well, actually, it says it in most translations very clearly.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:35]:
Like this. It says, every tenth of the land's produce, grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. What, one out of 10, every 10th, every 10th, animal from the herd or the flock which passes under the shepherd's rod will be what, holy to the Lord? Dedicated to God, Dedicated for God's purposes. And that we basically ought not to take that right now. We ought not to take that for ourselves. Why? Because we ought to be contributing members of God's family, right? We ought to be participating. Is it because God says this, that I need your 10th because I'm running out of cash, I'm short on cash flow? No, God doesn't say that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:22]:
He says we give because it keeps our hearts connected to God. Right? The promise is this. If I give the 10th, what will God do? He will pour into our sack, press it down, shake it together. He'll keep on pouring until, what? There's overflow? That's the promise. That's the promise, Right. But there's this other process that happens that he talks about, and that God gives blessings, but sometimes he needs to break curses. And that when we give and that he gives to us, that sometimes what he's doing is he's giving blessings, but he's also breaking curses. In the book of Malachi, verses 3, 9, 12, he says this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:12]:
You are suffering under a curse, yet you, the whole nation, are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord of Armies. See if I will not open the full floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the Devourer for you. Let's say the word devourer. What is the word devourer? To be honest, in some sense, is it applied to, like, the pests that might Come like the locust or the beetles or whatever it is, right? Some kind of worm, right? That kind of a thing that can destroy a crop. Probably, you know, probably does.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:57]:
But is it a spiritual force? Is it a physical thing? And I think the answer is yes. I think it's both. I think he's saying this, that when we give. He says this, he says, I will rebuke the Devourer. And he says this, that you're suffering under a curse. Does that mean that God has cursed us if we haven't given? I don't think so. You know what my take of it is? My take of it is this, is that when I remove myself under God's blessing, under God's provision, if there is a covering over me, there's a protection over me. And God says this, this is where the protection is, that when we honor him, we stand in that steadfast.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:42]:
But if you don't want to, you can do it yourself, right? I can step out from under God's protection, under God's provision, under God's covering, and I can stand on the side. And it's at that moment that I am more subject to the frailties of life, right? To the work of the enemy, right? To those kinds of things that all of a sudden now I think that these things that can create the hole in my pocket, right? Anybody ever, like, if you've ever had your car not start, when you go, right, it's always at the worst time. Why? Because you're trying to go somewhere. That's why you're trying to start the car, right? And when we have that. But, like, have you ever been in that place where it's like, the car didn't start this day, and the next thing you know, you come home and then the refrigerator doesn't feel cold, and then the next thing you go, and it's like, you know, you try to flush the toilet, but the toilet is running. You can hear the thing. It's like, you know, it just seems like everything's breaking down. This is what he's saying.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:47]:
I'll rebuke that. Because there is like a curse. There is like a. Sometimes there can be a spiritual entity that says this, that, what you have, I'll blow it away. Because we've all been in that place, right? Where you have. The point is not that you didn't get, but you just cannot hold on to what you've got. It seems to be kind of falling through the holes. And this is God's promise.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:16]:
I want to break that Curse, right? I want to break that curse. This is not my plan for you. Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor, say that's not God's plan, right? That's not God's plan. Things break down in life. It does. But we've all been where it's like, man, it seems like life is against me. It seems like this thing is against me. Seems like there's.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:39]:
It's constant. And God says this. Bring yourself under this place. Because I want to break the curse and I want to pour out the blessing. Because he says it like this, right? He says, you have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink, but never have enough to be happy. He wants us to have that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:03]:
You put on clothes but never have enough to get them. The. The wage earner puts his wages in a bag with a hole in it. So he's saying, think carefully, because isn't it better to come under my blessing than you just to do it yourself? I will rebuke the devourer and I will open the floodgates of heaven, let's say floodgates of heaven. What does it say? It's saying that God's going to. Not just. Not just going to like a little trickle, a drip, a drop, flow. But he says, I want there to be a downpour of blessing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:36]:
I want there to be a downpour. And he says that why? So that you can pour out the blessing for you without measure in Malachi. And that all the nations. It says, I love what it says. All the nations will consider you fortunate. Some translations say this, consider you blessed. They'll call you blessed, for you will be a delight land. And so God says this, that sometimes we get on God's side of the equation because having done it ourselves, we've seen the devourer, we've seen the whole.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:09]:
We seen where we get. But you cannot hold on. And so maybe, you know, I have a friend that, you know, really talented guy. Like, I would say this, really a kind of above average man. Just like sometimes I just thought like, hey, when he was here in Hawaii, like, maybe this is a little bit small place for what this guy can accomplish. And you know, the thing is that he's the kind of a guy that like, swings for the fences. So, you know, when you swing for the fences, sometimes you strike out along the way, right? Because when he connects, it really connects. And then sometimes, hey, you know, that thing happens in life, but he's kind of.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:50]:
That kind of a guy. And I remember when he was in business, and we would pray for stuff. That there was a season where it seemed like, man, he had deal after deal after deal that was coming up, and the future looks so bright. But then inevitably, each one of those opportunities just kind of died on the vine. Right? No funding for your thing. Right, Sorry. We were looking at you and somebody else, but we went with somebody else. You know, all that kind of a thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:25]:
And thing after thing after thing just died on the vine. I'm not talking about, like a handful. I'm talking, like on two hands. And it's. At this point, he felt like God hates me. And I said, no, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He loves you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:43]:
But have we considered there may be a need for us to get on God's side of the equation? Because the devourer needs to be stemmed. You know, I saw him sometime in the summer and he said that at that point, that when we came and we prayed and we prayed over him, and, you know, I just asked him to do a couple things just as a faith thing for him. And he said, you know, to be honest, from that moment, he says, like. I just said, like, not me. He says, it's God. It's all God. But he says, yeah, but it was when you came, right? But basically we just dealt with some of these things. And when you deal with some of these things, we meet God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:31]:
Then God does what he says he's going to do, and he's doing well now. It's like, it's an amazing thing, and everybody's happy. Everybody rejoices. But sometimes we don't see it, right? And this is what happens. We think God doesn't. God hates me, like my friend said. And I said, no, he doesn't. I don't know if you've ever felt that or.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:52]:
He. He's ignoring me. He doesn't listen to me anymore. No, sometimes the point is we got to listen to him, right? And so just getting on that God's side of the equation, and then he says this. I'll open the floodgates of heaven and we rejoice together, right? So does the tithe mean it's a tenth of everything you have? No, it doesn't. It says it's of the increase. Let's say increase. Okay, what is increase? If I had lent somebody $20 and they gave me the $20 back, do I tithe off that? No, that's my money.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:33]:
He just. Somebody, I lend somebody something, they gave it back. I didn't make any increase. Right. They just paid me back. That's not what you. You pay. If you owned your own business, you're an Uber driver.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:44]:
Right? That's one of the easiest businesses to start, I guess. Right? You had a. You driving Uber, and then you. You get your check and you get a tip and you go, is that your increase? Probably not the whole thing. Why? Because you got to deduct gas, right? You got to deduct insurance, you got to deduct. Uber's part of that whole thing, right? Like that. That's what you. That's the.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:10]:
It's income, not revenue. It's not everything you bring in. It's everything you bring in minus your expenses. Right. Minus your taxes. Right. That's what you. Well, as a business, that's what it is, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:27]:
I think as an individual, it could be something different. We can talk about that at some other point. But if I get paid for a job, all that stuff's taken care of. It's just my paycheck. Well, yeah, that's your increase then. Right. But it's not revenue, it's income. And so God says this, that that's why we calculate the tithe.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:48]:
It's not on revenue, it's on the profits, on the increase. And so, you know, for us to get on God's side of the equation, I think it entails a few things. I think one of those things is that we do need to commit to the tithe. Now, what do I mean by that? It's just to say that we say that. You know what? I think that this is what we see when we look at the scripture, that the tithe is biblical, right? That 10% is not just what was in the Old Testament. We see Jesus refer to it in the New Testament, and he doesn't stop saying. He doesn't say that you shouldn't tithe. He says you should tithe, but you just ought to make sure that you're doing the other stuff, too, like being, you know, not neglecting love and compassion and all those things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:38]:
He never says that there ought not to be the tithe. And so we agree with God that he has a standard that he reveals. Because what I've seen is there's two ways you can deal with something when God tells you something, right? Especially when it's difficult. Right? Especially when it's difficult. One way is that we challenge it because we don't like what it says. Right. And maybe we want to change it. Reminds me of the story I heard about a wealthy businessman that, like, supposedly this is A true story that happened to Richard Halvorson, who was the chaplain for the U.S.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:19]:
senate. And he came up to him and he said, you know, Pastor, you know, I can't afford to tithe. I make a couple million dollars a year, and that's like a tie 10%. That's $200,000. I can't afford to give $200,000, right? He says, but, you know, when I was just starting out, I made $20,000 a year. That would have only been 2,000. So would you pray for me so that, you know, just because you can see my problem, right? And he says, yeah, I get it. I understand.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:53]:
So he started to pray, and he says, lord, I pray that you would help my friend here today because he is making so much money today that he cannot afford to tithe. So, Lord, would you be so gracious to him today to reduce his income so he can afford to tithe, right? The guy got all upset, right? Like, he's like, well, okay, what are you saying? Right? Because to be honest, if you're making $2 million for you to tithe, that means you still got one $1.8 million, right? And versus the person who's $20,000, that $2,000. There's this thing that the more proportional we get, right? Like, the more you make, it's, to be honest, you're living off more. And so this is what we say instead of trying to change it, right? Even if you don't feel like you can do it. Because some of us now, at the moment, we're so leveraged out, right? We're so. We're trying to live our. And act our wage that, you know what? We talked about that, to be honest, it doesn't happen, like, straight on a dime because you have some things already obligated and things that you just cannot get out of right at the moment. And so sometimes you may not be able to.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:08]:
I understand that if you were to do this, like, today, like, to be honest, you couldn't float financially. All right, I understand how that is. But you know what? I think if I agree with God, then rather than argue with God, there's grace. Because what is arguing with God about this thing? It's called justification, right? I cannot, Lord, because this and that. And it's like, you know, like, that this shouldn't be this way and all these kind of things. And to be honest, God won't let you do that, right? But when you want to do it and you agree, even if you cannot do it, right? I think that Then God gives you a grace, right? Because how many of you have sinned in the last day or two, raise your hand? We all know that we not supposed to sin. We agree with that. But you still failed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:04]:
So what does God say? Get out. No, he doesn't. Right? There's a grace. But if we said, is that different than saying God, I didn't want to. I'm struggling. I'm trying to make a change. But then if we said this, why, what's wrong with that? I'm fine. I can do whatever I like.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:25]:
Is there grace at that point? Or what you're asking for is license, right? To just kind of do whatever. And so I think to agree with God and say, God, I agree. This is what your word says, right? So rather than argue about it, but I can't do it, but just help me. I want to move toward that, right? And I think that there is a grace for this, that do me a favor, just say God has a grace when we fail. But you know what? You won't need grace if you argue about it. Because you don't say there's anything I need grace for. I'm not even wrong, right? And so there's a difference, right? I'd rather be in the place where I need grace than I tell God I'm all good. And God's saying, not so good, right? You're not as good as you think.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:23]:
And so, you know, God knows that this is tough for many. So this whole thing, it comes with a promise, right? It comes with a promise. God says, test me in this. This is that whole thing in the book of Malachi, he says, this is one of the things. Now, some of us who read the Bible a little bit might know that to test God is in every other instance, a negative thing, right? Because it says, you shall not test the Lord your God, right? This is the only place that I know in the scriptures where God says, this. Test me in this, that if you give and you bring in the tithe, that see if I will not rebuke the devourer, break the curse, pour out the blessings, open the floodgates of heaven, right? That this is his challenge to us. God invites us to test him. Why? Because he knows it's scary.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:29]:
He knows it's scary, but he says this. Trust me. Now, for some of us, you know, I think that in this kind of a situation that I'm going to challenge us here because I know if you cannot, like, just tithe, because it's not like you make $2 million a year. And you can afford to give 200,000, right? Although we pray that you would all be in that position. But, but here's the thing. I want to give you a challenge. Can you do me a favor, hun? Can you bring me the jars now? Thank you. So I'm going to say this is us and this is our income.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:26]:
These are marbles in the jar. I don't know if you can see them from where you are or on online, but I have a bunch of marbles in here, right? So anybody want to guess how many marbles inside? Hundred. Good guess. That's exactly how much there is. 100. Why? Because it makes this illustration easier, right? So what is. If this is a hundred marbles, what is, what is the tithe? That's what, 10 marbles, right? So that's 3, 5, 8, 10. So this is what God says, you keep 90, give me 10.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:08]:
Right? That's what he's asking. Now for some of us, we glory. Yeah, that doesn't look that bad. But when I look at it in my checkbook, they don't feel that good, right? So we're saying this, right? So we're thinking about this now. This is what God. I believe this is the standard. And for many of us, we're not at this place, but if we can say, God, this is where you want me to be, that he's saying this, that I can live with the blessing on the 90, or I can live 100% all on my own, right? That's what he's saying. And so we just don't know how to get there.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:43]:
And so this is what I would say. I would kind of lay out to you. This is what I think that we can do. It's a challenge is to just say this, give 1% more. Unless you're tithing already, give 1% more than what you're giving. So what does that mean? If I'm giving, If I'm giving 4%, one more marble, that's it, then give 5%. I'm just asking you to say if you did that. Why? Because God is saying this and then you come back in three months and you say, has God opened up in some sense, the floodgates of heaven? Has he blessed me? Has he poured out blessings into my life? I've seen some sense and we can talk about what that means or not, right? Let's say you're giving 2%.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:45]:
So what does that mean? Help me out. One more marble, right? Just 3%. Just stretch our faith, right? Because Jesus always said this, it's not doing it mechanically, right? He's saying this. He says, be it done to you according to your faith. Choose what you can give. You decide. You decide. Choose what you can give according to your faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:14]:
If you don't have faith for 10%, do you have faith for 3%? What if you have not giving anything? What is one times zero? Zero? No, that's not how this works. It's just this. Add one marble. Can you give one out of a hundred? I think most everybody can at least give one of your marbles, right? And you keep the 99 and see if not that God will bless and pour out the floodgates of heaven. Now, when I heard this challenge, not exactly like this, but basically just about tithing, right? I had been serving God for. I've been a Christian for 14 years. I'd been in the ministry for a dozen years at that point. I've been a missionary.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:12]:
And I gave up my energy and my time, right? My life, right? I said to God, I'll go wherever you want me to go. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll say whatever you want me to say, right? But, yeah, I still struggled financially. Now, part of it, the reason is that I was living off like $12,000 a year as a missionary, right? So it's not like high on the hog. Even back then, that was not a lot of money, right? Where like, my friends coming out making probably like about $30,000 out of college, right? And so I took, unknowingly, this is what I agreed to. This, this is what I, I did. I. In fact, I was.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:55]:
I just needed to make sure first that I could get a job that would pay me like that. I kind of was one of those guys. I needed to make sure I could do it. It's not that I couldn't do anything else so I could get the job, but I turned it down, right? And I got offered some other jobs. I turned it down and I said, I'm going to do this thing, but it's only going to be like $12,000 a year, right? And so this is why I struggled, because I thought I couldn't afford tithe. I only making 12,000 already, right? Got to still pay for my apartment, got to pay for the car. Gotta pay, you know, I gotta. Still gotta eat all that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:27]:
I never ate out hardly. Just. It was like, I cook, do all these things at home. But I kept struggling, right? I went to seminary. I did all that stuff. Came back, had more student debt, right? And now it's at that point, a few years after that, that I met my wife and we started dating. We got married. And it's like when I got married, I just said.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:51]:
We sat down and I said, you know, honey, I've never really fully tithed, but God's promise is either true or it's not. I think we need to just take God at his word and tithe. And my wife said, okay. And I was, like, shocked. I was actually a little bit disappointed because if she said no, then I could blame her. That's why we're not doing them now. But no, I'm just kidding. But she was quick to say yes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:24]:
And so what does it mean that he'll rebuke the devourer and open the floodgates of heaven? I think it means, in some sense, is that he's going to have blessings in some ways that sometimes can lead. Lower your expenses, right? Increase your income or sometimes make things last longer, right? Why do I say that? Obviously, I think the increase we can understand, right? But the thing about lower my expenses, that all of a sudden then the things that you thought you would have to pay, you don't have to pay, right? And the things that should wear out, don't wear out. The Israelites in the desert, right? What did they do? They walked around, it says, For 40 years, wearing the same shoes, wearing the same clothes. Now, I don't know how old your clothes are now, but I'm guessing, right, it's less than 40 years old. Although some of you, I could be. No kidding. But so now, when we got married, then again, I was making that kind of a situation. But I had transitioned right after that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:34]:
I had come home, I was pastor on staff. Made more than 12,000. Not like a ton more than that, but as a. As a pastor. And then later I got to the place where I needed to work outside, right? So. And that was a blessing in and of itself just because I started making more money than ever made in my life. I was doing outside sales, and life was easy, to be honest. Like, I had more money than ever had in my life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:03]:
And, like, if we wanted to go to the Big island, we'd say, hey, let's just go to Big island today. And then we just jumped on a plane and just went to Big Island. It was real nice at that time. It was very comfortable, right? And. And then we just said, but we got to start honoring God. Like, I never had the. Felt like I had that I did or I was. I didn't have the Faith for it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:22]:
I didn't have the discipline for it. But, like, now, let's start now, right? And so we did. And you know, the thing is that then it got to the place where, because I was still making, you know, good money on the outside, that we started to look for a house. And largely also because our family would have helped us, right? And when we found the house, we looked for. We shopped almost a year, right? I think looking for houses. And, you know, some houses was beautiful and some houses was not, and the whole thing. And then you finally find this house and we think. I think this is the house.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:01]:
You know, you just get that sense. I think this is the place. But you know that when we bought the house, that house was 27% cheaper than it was three and a half years prior. It is the lowest because that house was brand new. We're the second owner. That house was brand new three and a half years before we bought it. They bought it. And in that time, it lowered over $120,000.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:33]:
I'm not that smart. I got the God price, right? I got the God price. You see, when God lowers the expenses, that's not normal, right? It's the blessing. It's because the floodgates of heaven. Within a few years, we paid off my student loans from seminary, right? When the kids started to go to college, getting ready to go to college, I was worried, to be honest. There were nights that I would lay it in bed and I'd be thinking, like, oh, this, like, how much? How can we do it? We've been saving since they were kids, right? Since they were like little kids. Started open an account, putting like, whatever, like even on my salary, $30 or that was a bunch putting it for each one. It's grown.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:27]:
But like, man, all that can gone in one year or one semester. And we know how we do it. And I remember just thinking, you know, lord, I gotta get another job. Not that I would leave my role, but I have to just work like a second job. And so a lot of you guys do you work a second job, right? And I'm not above that, right? And so I just didn't know how I would do it. I felt like I kind of work a lot now. And, you know, the thing is, when we were praying about that, I felt like the Lord said, trust me. And I didn't know what that meant.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:09]:
But unfortunately, my mom passed away suddenly just as my oldest was starting to go to college. And because she passed away, there were. Things got real complicated. And some things to settle with her affairs. But over time, just little bits of pieces of some of that came in such that, you know, we have three kids in school, two of them graduated, and we were able to pay for their college without us going into more debt. Now they got to swing their own little bit of college loan. But to be honest, it's not even like close to what the cost of that education was. But somehow God poured out the floodgates and it met my need.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:07]:
I'm not like a special person. I just took God at his word and he says this. I rebuke the devourer. I'll extend your. How long things last? You know, like the first 10 years of our life in that house. I felt like, wow, just like, it just is awesome because you don't have to do that much repairs and this and this and this first 10 years, it's like I didn't have to do many repairs after 10 years. Well, plenty of repairs came. But the thing is, it extended the life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:44]:
I felt like, man, some stuff just was like, just the sweet blessings of God. I felt like, like says in the Psalms that the lines had fallen to me in pleasant places, but you got to take God at his word. And so this is why we're just challenging you. But do what you can do by faith and doesn't mean that you don't have to make adjustments. We had to make adjustments, right? You know, like, I would save up money extra. Sometimes I would get like, somebody would just give a blessing in cash and stuff like that. And you know, after you do something, and I would hold that money thinking, like, this is my big TV money. And I had it in the, in a drawer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:33]:
And because I wanted a big screen TV, which back then meant 32 inches. Sounds small. Yeah. No, but this is when TVs wasn't flat screen like this, this was like, remember that big rounded screen? And I remember thinking, I want to buy one of those because I was watching like this little TV, 20 inch TV. But then my wife would say, you know, I don't know if that's a good use of that money. I was thinking, that's my money. Then I had to remember, no, it's not my money. It's God's money.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:07]:
It's our money. But, you know, the kids need this. And the thing is, we always had enough, but we had to make adjustments. And I never bought that tv probably for like almost eight, ten years. So we did make adjustments, right? You just, you know, we don't do those things. And because we Try to do God's priorities, not the world's priorities, right? I don't know if you guys remember that graphic I had up last week. Just, you know, acquire. And then, you know, hey, just pay my debts.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:41]:
And then, okay, of course I got to pay my taxes and you know, all that kind of stuff. It's like, oh, the priorities are different. Then the words like honor the Lord, right? Yes, of course. You got to pay your taxes, you got to pay your debts, and you do all those things. But we start with giving, right? So that's basically what I lived. And it's like, you know, God was gracious and, you know, so if we're asking this, that if you do this and you let us know that you're doing it just so you got to let us know, because otherwise we cannot track. You can let us know on the communication tab that if in three months you feel like, hey, you know, I've been doing this thing and I struggled and I did this thing and I don't see no blessings. I never see no lowering of stuff.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:34]:
I never see no provision. I didn't see any sense where the devourer or things being extended. I don't see any. Then you know what, Just let us know, we'll give you back 100% of what you gave so that you can test God. I want you to be able to test God and see if he will not honor his word, right? And you can do it in some sense, risk free, because we want you to be blessed close with this story. It's called the Parable of the Pomp. And, and some of us might have heard it before. And there's a guy who's walking through the desert and he comes to this little kind of building and a little ramshackle, he sees there a well, you know, like the old kind of old timey well that you got to pump the thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:30]:
And he runs, he says, oh my God, this is amazing. He pumps it, nothing comes out. And then he notices on the ground next to the pump, next to that well, pump a jar with a cover on it. And it's a jar like this, like a mason jar filled with water. And the guy is just about to grab it, open the cap and drink the whole thing, but then he sees a note that says this. Do not drink the water. This water might satisfy your thirst, but then that's all you'll have. But what this water is for is you're to take this water and pour it around the base of the pump.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:17]:
Because inside of this pump is a leather gasket that has dried and it needs to be lubricated. This water pump poured into this pump will lubricate and reanimate this leather gasket and it'll expand and then it will have the vacuum that's necessary so that when you pump, you will not just get enough to fill this thing, you will get as much as you need. But the choice, yours. I believe God says the same thing to us in some sense because we can take our jar of marbles and I can take all my marbles and go home, or I can say, God, you're not asking for everything, even though it all belongs to you. You're just asking for 10. And if you cannot give 10, maybe you can give 5. If you cannot give 5, maybe you can give 3 or whatever. But I'm sure everybody can at least give one, right? That's the challenge.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:32]:
That makes sense. But do as what your faith allows you to do. Don't do it under compulsion. Don't do it because you feel embarrassed. Don't do it for any of those reasons. Do it because you love God. You want to trust him, but you also want to step under his covering where he can rebuke the devourer and pour out his blessing. That makes sense.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:01]:
Hey, let's bow our heads. Close in a word of prayer. Lord, this life has ups and downs and no one can see it all but you. And we're thankful, Lord, that you said that you're our shepherd, you're our Savior, you're our provider. And we've all experienced at some point, Lord, some way that you have provided, Lord, a hand when we needed it most. Lord, we've sensed where an opening where it was really the answer to prayer. Prayer. Lord, we've all been in that place, that place where when we were dead in our sin.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:44]:
And we recognized that you were drawing us closer to you. And the more we got closer to you, we sense the peace and we sense the kindness of God, and we sense the move of God. And Lord, we just wanted to say, God, that we want just to do this for the rest of our lives, Lord, to be your people. We're thankful, Lord. You bless us first and then you just ask us out of that blessing to give back a portion so we might be part of your family and participants, Lord, in the family business kingdom business. So, Father, we thank youk that what our faith can allow. Lord, would you'd stretch us, Lord, Would you stretch us? Because, Lord, we believe that your promise is according to your riches. And what? I'm thankful it's not according to my riches.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:44]:
But Lord, because yours is unlimited. Lord, it's like that water that we pour on that seal. It just allows there for an unlimited supply that comes from your riches. Father, I'd rather live off the 90 that you bless than 100% that's just on me. Father, Would you speak to your sons and speak to your daughters? Bless them. Rebuke the enemy, rebuke the devourer, break the curse, Lord. But Father, I know it takes also part of us to trust. To trust with our finances.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:28]:
To trust, Lord, to get on your side of the equation with money. Thank you. It's a blessing. Bless my friends in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, God bless you guys. Thanks for joining us.