Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:01]:
Hey, good evening, everybody. Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving. I know my family and I did. And mostly, even though it's just a few friends and more than enough food to feed twice the number of us, it was just nice to be able to be thankful, to enjoy family, enjoy friends, and it's a good thing. I love leftover. So I'm guessing some of us are in that category, too. This evening we're concluding the series we started four weeks ago. I guess this is the fifth week we just call Money Matters.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:35]:
And we know that money does matter in this life. It doesn't matter in terms of your standing before God. It doesn't matter in the sense of who you are as a person. But it affects us in a lot of different ways. And so God talks about money, Jesus talks about money more than actually heaven and hell, although that lasts much, much longer, obviously. But God understands the things that we deal with in this life. And so we are, as we conclude this. You know, we started by saying that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:10]:
We started out by saying, hey, the whole beginning of this is in God we trust. And we talked about the dollar bill and how it has that in God we trust almost like a warning sign not to put our trust in money, not to put our trust in our personal wealth or our abilities. But he says to put our trust in God and that everything comes from him, right? And that life and the finances we have is a stewardship from God. And then we talked about the aspect of kind of living responsibly and act your wage and how just some of those aspects of that we ought to spend less than we earn, that we ought to, you know, be able to have a plan, understand where our money comes from, where your money's going to. Then we talked about the aspect of getting on God's side with money and being able to be under God's umbrella of blessing rather than being uncovered and saying, it's just all me and being subject to what the enemy does when we're uncovered. And so we talked about that, and that happened to do with the aspect of giving. And we talked about managing your ins and outs, right? Really kind of getting a little bit nitty gritty. And for those of us with debt, those of us who understanding how to get our expenses in line as well as to save and invest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:31]:
And so this evening we're going to conclude our series, but we're beginning every message with reading Philippians 4:19. And tonight's not going to be any different. So would you be kind enough to stand? Let's Stand in reverence for God, reverence for His Word. And we're going to read Philippians 4:19 together. And let's read. 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.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:07]:
Amen. And, you know, the Lord wants us to remember that as we're looking about whether we're getting into whether you went to a financial class, whether you're going to be confronted with some challenges financially, whether you're on the top of your game financially, that God wants us to know that it's him who's the provider in our needs. And that when we're thankful, we're not just saying, I'm, I'm just practicing gratitude, you know, that it's like kind of a spiritual thing. But we're being grateful to God that He is the one who has sustained us, who has led us, that we're here today. You're here today because God has. Has ordained it, that he's fed you, he's led you, he's healed you, he strengthened you, he's revealed Himself to you. Is that right? Amen. So before you seated, just turn to your neighbor says, aren't you grateful? God's your provider, then you can have a seat.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:05]:
Right? And at the same time, we all know that, that looking at some of the things that we looked at that for some of us, that, yeah, we are confronting debt, for some of us, we are confronting some changes in the financial picture or maybe sometimes it's work situations. For many of our friends who work for the federal government, although the shutdown has ended a couple weeks ago, it doesn't mean everything's all good. Right. It doesn't mean that they're all caught up. It doesn't mean that everybody's pay has made them whole. The fact that they have maybe additional taxes taken out, that there's still a gap for many people with some of the. Even the fact that the shutdown is over. So we understand that there are things that are still happening for some of us that when Black Friday happened, you guys were out there and taking advantage of the deals.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:11]:
And so we can be in a lot of different places, right? And you know, one of the things that it says in Philippians 4, 11 and 13, and I think many of us understand that, that we've been in probably lean times and we've been in times of abundance, right? There's been times. And I'm not sure where. Where you are personally, but I want us to look at what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4, 11, 13. And this is what he says. And can we read this together? He says this, ready? Let's read that. Not that I am speaking of being in need. For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abide in any and every circumstance.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:57]:
I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And so when we read this, he says this, I have learned to be content. This aspect of becoming content is not something that happens automatically and just that we should tell somebody, hey, you ought to be content. And then that solves everything, to be honest. It's something that needs to be learned. If it's something that needs to be learned, then it's something that needs to be understood. There's some things that need to be practiced.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:37]:
There's some things that need to be applied in our lives for contentment to take its root, right? And it's not enough to just say we ought to be content with the situation because sometimes you're not right? And so if you're not content or sometimes you struggle with this, that maybe sometimes you look at why does that guy get ahead, right? That not anybody in this room but ever struggles with that or why somebody else like, well, it seemed like they get blessed more than me or whatever it is that how do we deal with that? There's this aspect that we need to learn to be content now if we're going to need to learn to be content. What does being content mean? Right? It literally means from the Greek, to be happy or content with what one has despite circumstances in which one exists. Merriam Webster says it like this. It's satisfaction with one's possessions or status or situations. But let's not mistake contentment with complacency, right? Because it's not saying be complacent like it doesn't matter. Just settle for being in debt for the rest of your life. It doesn't matter about your financial situation, right? Like, hey, God is good. So nothing of this stuff matters.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:54]:
No, it does matter. But that you can still find contentment even when the situation is isn't what you want it to be. Even you may not be where you hope you would be. And that something that can happen when we learn, when we learn to be content. How do you learn to be content? I think, you know, one of the things that Philippians says is that, that you can do all things then through Christ who strengthens me. Sometimes we apply that to. It's like, I got some. A new job that I can do, and I don't know how I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:32]:
Some guys, it's like a sporting thing. Like, it's like I can shave one stroke off this hole or I can lift this weight. We say all these things in competitive things. But what is it saying in this particular case? It's saying, despite my circumstances financially, despite the circumstances of my life, I can do all things, regardless if I'm in abundance or if I'm in need. And so he says in First Timothy, he says, because godliness with contentment is great gain. And we brought nothing into the world and with nothing, but we cannot take out anything of the world. And if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. But you know what I found is that three things that I think that I learned that helped me to learn to be content in situations that I know otherwise I might not have been right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:38]:
Where I would have been jealous, where I would have been envious, where I would have been maybe depressed, where I would have been if I had gone another way, I would be in a different situation. You guys ever been in that place, Right? I think we've all been in that place. But, you know, there's three things I learned. And the first one is that I stopped confusing my net worth with my self worth. You know, when I was growing up, we came from a family that, my immediate family. I was the first one to go to college, right? I was the first, first one to go to get a graduate degree, right? That kind of a situation. But it doesn't mean that my family was uneducated because I had uncles that had gone to school and gone to medical school. And to be honest, they were great people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:38]:
But every once in a while, you kind of ever been in a family meeting or family gathering and there's a little bit of a dig that's kind of, you can tell. It's like we know we're not on the same economic level, right? And, you know, I kind of grew up with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder as a result of that. And I always kind of. I made a vow, really. I made a vow to like myself. I made a vow to my mom that says, you know, mom, I'm going to make a lot of money and I'm going to take care of you when you get older. Right? And part of that was because just that Feeling right, You know, that kind of. That sense.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:18]:
And the thing is that in the process of going to college, right, I came to know the Lord. And so when I encountered Jesus, and all of a sudden that he began to change my values, when he began to heal my heart, when I began to understand the work of the Spirit, when I began to experience Christ in my life, then I realized that some of the things I had valued for much of my life didn't actually profit me in the moments that I needed them the most to somehow prop me up in life. And that the things I never had counted on, never thought it really mattered, like God and the Spirit and spiritual things. I never thought that those things were important, that those were the things that sustained me, that brought me joy in life, that allowed my life to really change. And when that happened, I began to see that sometimes confusing your net worth with your self worth can get you into some trouble at times, right? I'm reminded of the story of the man who was, you know, on his deathbed, and he was just saying, you know, like, the angel of the Lord came and said, hey, you better be ready to go because this is your times today. And the guy said, hey, you know, like, I know I'm gonna go now, but can I just say goodbye to my children before I leave? And the angel said, sure, go ahead. And so he called his kids and he said, hey, can you. Can you bring that bag that's in the.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:44]:
In the closet? That. That little black bag? And so the kids came and they hugged their dad and they. They told him how much they loved them, and he told them the same. And he said. And he said, can I just have the bag? And he. He held onto the bag, and he asked the angel, can I take this bag with me? And he says, generally you don't bring nothing with you, to be honest, the clothes or nothing. He says, but these are just the. These are just the memories of my children and that we've done, and they just, in their love, and I just want to be able to reflect on that in heaven.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:10]:
And so the angel said, you know, this is against policy, but, you know, I guess, what is it going to hurt, right? And so he took the bag with him, and when he got to the gates of heaven, it was actually filled with gold, right? And now, I don't know if you guys know, but gold is like $4,218 an ounce right? Now, if you had 50 pounds of gold, you know what that's worth? Like $3.32 million. So he thought, like, this is going to help me when I get to heaven. And when he got there, Peter's at the gate and he says, hey, what's at the bag? We don't bring anything. He says, I just brought some memories that from my time on earth with my kids. And Peter let me see that. He says, what are you doing bringing pavement into heaven for, right? And so sometimes, right, because he said the streets are paved with gold, right? It's like asphalt. What are you bringing rocks for? What are you bringing cement for? And he's saying that sometimes we confuse our net worth with our self worth, right? Sometimes it's not just about how much you have, but sometimes, to be honest, it's how much you have compared to somebody else. You know, one of the things I've noticed is just from traveling and doing missions and all those kinds of things is that you can do without a lot when you go to places where no one has a lot, right? That when you go to a place that there's a lot of times we have a standard and people have a comfort level.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:41]:
But I've been to places where nobody has electricity, they don't have a bathroom, like you gotta squat to go toilet. And that was the improvement that before they just literally used to go in the bushes. And I remember the ladies saying, it's like, oh, has that really improved your life? And she says, yeah, we used to get mosquito bite on our okole when we go in the bush and we just started rolling. But you know, when we were there, like they eat twice a day max. Not because they're intermittent fasting, right? Because that's how much they have to eat. When you're in that kind of a situation, you know, you eat whatever's like you don't care, but it's because everybody's the same, right? If I lived in Kahala in that situation, I might be tempted to compare myself to my neighbor, right? But this is one of the things I learned was stop comparing yourself with those around you, right? You know, I mentioned my uncles were physician, and I remember one of my, my uncles telling me that my cousin's first car was a Mercedes. And then he then he stopped himself and he said, oh, you used, but was a used Mercedes. You know, my first car was a 20 year old AMC Hornet, right? Now some of you guys, most of you guys don't even know what that is, right? And if you know what that is, you say, oh my gosh, man, you sucked.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:25]:
No, no, but like I used to get fumes. I Didn't realize I would get tired driving in a stop and go traffic because the fumes were coming in the car from the hole in the, in the, in the body from somewhere along the line, right? And I was in this kind of a place and I. And when I would hear my cousin, my uncle say that there was a little bit of jealousy, right, that was happening. There's a little bit of this, right? But, you know, I found over time that I shouldn't compare myself because so often what I will do. And like many of us that will compare our strengths to someone else's weakness, and that can make you prideful, or you can compare your weakness to somebody else's strengths or circumstances, and it can make you feel insecure or less than. And that God doesn't tell me to compare myself. And with. The Apostle Paul said, I don't compare myself with anybody.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:27]:
I don't even compare myself with myself. And I know many of us, we compare ourselves with ourselves. You know, when, when in a few, in a month and a half or so when some of us will begin an exercise regimen in the beginning of January, some of us, we're going to say, I got to get in better shape, I got to lose weight, I got to do something. And then you're going to go and you're going to exercise and you're going to say, when I was sophomore in high school, I was stronger than I am now. You guys compare yourself to yourself, hey, when I was training, when I was doing right, we do that. Well, we're not training now. We're not 16 years old anymore for some of us, I mean, we have some young people in here, maybe not quite that young, but not that far. But here's the thing, is that sometimes we have to stop comparing ourselves to others.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:28]:
You know, the book of Hebrews says this. He says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. You know what he's saying? He's saying it's not every weight, not every sin is a weight because some things you carry are sin and some things you carry are just a weight, right? Some things you carry just kind of weigh you down. To compare is not necessarily. The Bible doesn't necessarily say it's a sin. But you know what it can do? It can weigh you down. It can weigh you down from kind of stepping into the place that you're in. And then he says this because he says the sin which clings so closely and he says, let us run with endurance.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:19]:
Let's say run with endurance, the race that is set before us. You know, sometimes when you're comparing yourself, you can give up your calling, right? Because God doesn't call. God didn't call me to run my cousin's race. God didn't call me to run my uncle's race. God didn't call me to run the race I vowed I would do for my mom. God called me to run a race that he set before me. So when I said, hey, I'll serve you, Lord, wherever you want me to go, willing to give up, you know, kind of the dream that I had, if this is what you want. And when I said yes to that and God opened the door and I was able to go in missions, I was able to do these things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:11]:
I was able to make a difference. I was able to lead people to Christ. I was able to make disciples. I was people still serving the Lord in missions around the world today as a result. But I felt it was an honor and a privilege. Would my bank account look different today if I had gone the other route? Yeah, it would have. But you know what? I made the choice. When I said, I'm going to follow Jesus, you know what? I'm content.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:41]:
I'm content. And has the Lord blessed me in ways more than some who've been in the mission field? Yeah, absolutely. Are there people who haven't been in the mission field that are more blessed financially than I am? Yeah, absolutely. But you know what? I'm grateful with running the race that Jesus has set before me because it's been good. And I only lose a sense of joy if I start comparing, right? Rather than to say, God, I just want to follow the things that you have for me. And it allows me to do this. Third thing is sometimes focus on what you have, not what you don't have. Right? Hebrews tells us this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:30]:
He says in Hebrews 13, 5, he says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content. Let's say, be content with what? With what you have right for he has said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. So he's telling us to be content, right? But we've got to learn that. Sometimes I remember, you know, doing that ministry and having these college kids. We're at a camp and, you know, there's. We're calling people to kind of lay aside, you know, the things that have kind of held them down. And we're. It's kind of like, you know, you'd have, like a campfire kind of a thing, and, you know, you'll maybe throw something in the fire and you commit it to God, right? And people are doing different things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:13]:
And one of the young guys that was there, and he wasn't a guy that I was leading in a study directly, but he was in a study of one of the guys I was leading. And he came up to me and he gave me his keychain. And his keychain was all those, like, $20, $50, $100. You guys ever seen those little fake, you know, like, looks like money, right? But these little cards, like plastic cards. And he. And he said, glenn, I wanted to give this to you. And I said, thanks. I don't know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:49]:
I didn't know what this was. He says, I wanted to give this to you because this is my idol, and I want to commit my life to Jesus. And he was like, 20 years old, 19 years old. And I was thinking, like, well, you. Everybody wanted, like, you know, you have a goal, make money and all that. I say, okay. But I received it, right? And I just took it. So.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:13]:
Because he wanted to get rid of it, he just wanted to say, I'm going to follow Jesus. And later on, he got more involved in our ministry, and so he actually invited me, along with some of the other staff, like, to go to his housewarming party. And he said, would you want to come to the house? It's going to be, like, great. Have a lot of food and all the stuff. And I go, yeah, yeah, sure, we'll come. And it's like, what can we bring? He said, no, no, don't bring anything. We have everything. And so we went.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:41]:
And I was shocked, right, because we drove up Wailai Iki, and we got to the place, and then when we were trying to park the car, there was valet parking. Now, this is in the 80s, right? So this is in the 80s. So when we pulled up, it's like, I never been to anybody's party at their house before where there was valet parking, right? And then there were, like. I found out there were, like, over 200 people at this party. And it didn't feel crowded because his house was, like, three stories tall and kind of had all these different things. And then I noticed, like, what is that sound? We're in one of the floors, and it's like, oh, it's the waterfall on the side of the house. You know, doesn't everybody have one of those right now? But that kind of a thing. And it's like.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:36]:
And when we Got to the ground floor actually we looked, it was like this pool decked out. It looked like Miami Vice, you know, like in those shows where like the girls, we just didn't have the girls in the bikini, right? Because it was nighttime and. And then we're just like, we're just shocked and everything is like marble and like just decked out. I'd never seen a house like that before and it was amazing. And the reason is because his family had a realty company, right? And so he already, at that age, I didn't realize when he gave me the thing, he already had his own condo. He already had other investments, right? So he'd been raised to make money, right? He had been raised with a business environment. It had already been in that place. He already like his car wasn't given to him from his parents.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:26]:
He bought his own. Like this kid was actually kind of in that vein to go up and you know, it was an amazing party, amazing dinner. And then after that I got in my 5 speed Honda Civic used car and I drove home into Kaimuki. And it was duplex and so we rented half with some of the guys. And the duplex was like, wasn't like just a made a duplex. It was basically a house and they just cut it in half. And our half had the garage and was enclosed so like the ceiling would come right above my head, right? And then they had to replace the places where it had windows and they boarded it up so it became a bedroom and all that. I went into that place and I was wondering how I was going to feel.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:22]:
And when I went in I was thinking, you know, I'm grateful that the Lord has provided that I have a car. I've never gone hungry. I have enough food, not have enough. I have enough resources not just to feed myself, but like all the ravenous college students who come and eat all my food when they come to my house all the time. I didn't have a giant savings account or anything, but I was able to pay what I owed. And I just was grateful because I focused on what I had, not what I didn't have. Because you can have all the money in the world and not be content, right? John Paul Getty JP Getty said this when he was asked. And he was the richest man, he was the Bill Gates of his time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:22]:
And he asked, how much is enough? And this is what he said, just a little more. Although he was the richest man in the world, financially there was a hole in his heart that he thought money would bring that eluded him because he didn't focus on what he had. He focused on what he didn't have. Focus on what you have, not on what you don't have. You know, I learned at that place to trust in the Lord. Now, you know, like my friend, he actually learn to trust in the Lord too, because later he gave up that life. He gave up his realty business. He went into the ministry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:20]:
He's a pastor right now in the mainland, right? In a Korean church, Right? And the thing is that he didn't need it either, right? It's not that money was bad, but when he gave me those keychain that he really did said that God is my God, not money is my God. And so we can learn, right? Some of us, we don't. It's not that we give up something because we've had it. He had it. I never had that, right? But this is what I learned is I didn't have to. I didn't have to climb the ladder of success and find that, get as much as I could, get what I thought I needed, only to find that it didn't fill me. I didn't need to do that. I learned that because that's called wisdom, right? Just like you don't have to be a drug addict to realize that drugs don't fill you, it steals from you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:35]:
Some of us, you have had that experience, right? And you learn from experience. And some of us, we learn from wisdom, right? It doesn't matter how you learn, we just learn. And so Paul says this. You can learn to be content. You can learn to be content. Content isn't automatic. I think it only happens really when you stop confusing. When it comes to money, when it comes.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:04]:
Even if you're struggling right now, even if you're not in the place where you want to be, when you stop confusing your net worth with your self worth, when you stop comparing yourself with those that are around you, and when you focus on what you have, not what you don't have, right? And, you know, I think there's just two more things I'm gonna share on this. And it's like the first, you know, the thing is, if you're in this place right now, and you do have a need still, right? Maybe you're upside down still. Maybe you're still spending more than you're making because, you know, it's just you have some obligations and it takes a little time to kind of unwind some of those decisions, and you're in that kind of a place. Just don't be discouraged. Instead, take your faith and plant it as a mustard seed. Now, why do I say that? Because this is what it says in Matthew 13:31,32, he says, Jesus speaking, he said this. He put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed it in his field. What did he do with it? He planted it, right? And it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:31]:
And if we, we look at what Jesus is talking about, he's talking about the black mustard seed, which is native to the Mediterranean area, including ancient Israel. And it's not the smallest seed in the world, but it was the smallest seed known in that area in that time, right? And so that's what often it'll say. It's not a scientific smallest seed. It was commonly known as the smallest seed. And it grows abundantly in the Galilee region. And it does grow very strong, right? It grows aggressively when it's planted. It has a very strong taproot that goes into the ground, the deep, right, that's the taproot that goes straight down. It has some lateral root network that spreads out and absorbs nutrients quickly.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:24]:
It produces some plant toxins. These mustard plants, this, what is it called, it's called a Brassica nigra. And it says that it produces these toxins, that chemicals it releases into the soil that inhibits other plants from growing. And so what it does is it literally does overtake a garden. It overtakes a place where it's planted, it chokes out other things and it creates thickets of these mustard plants or mustard trees that can grow normally between 6 to 10ft, but in areas like in Galilee, they grow to 15ft because its conditions are ripe for it and it produces rapidly seeds. And so all the ancient Jewish sources agree it's fast growing, it grows almost like a weed, it's very difficult to uproot, and it takes over the places where it's planted. So when we think about where you are right now, that if you say, I'm going to trust God, my trust is in God. My trust is not in money.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:33]:
My trust is not in my connections. My trust is not what I don't have or whatever it is, but our trust is in God. Plant that that faith needs to be planted. It becomes alive, it must be used, and then it'll grow. And then Jesus told This story later, he said in Matthew 17, 17, 20, he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly, I say, he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly, I say to you, you have the faith like the grain of mustard seed. You will say to this mountain here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you. And sometimes commentators have said that this is saying that when you have a little. Just have a little faith, right? If you just have a little faith, you can say that a mountain move and it'll be moved.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:28]:
I don't think that's what it's really saying. Many other commentators say this. It's saying it's not about the littleness of your faith because he just kind of corrects them because of the littleness of their faith. This is talking about when they couldn't cast out the spirit from the demon from a boy, and when his dad brought him to the disciples. And so Jesus casts out the demon from the boy. And then he says, you know, because of your little faith, right? I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, what is that saying? If it's planted, if you plant your faith in the soil of whatever it is that you need to grow in, like in discipleship, if you grow planted in, in this case, in your financial life that you say, I'm going to plant my seeds, my financial life, I'm going to plant my faith, I'm going to trust God with my finances, like God's word says, then what will happen? It will grow, it will get deeper, it will spread out, it will choke out other things. So even if you face a mountain, a mountain of what? A mountain of debt, maybe, right? A mountain of opposition, right? When you need a job, maybe that whatever it is that you're facing, and you can say, then move from here to there, and what will happen? It will be moved. But you got to plant your faith, right? Plant your faith in God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:05]:
Plant your faith that I'm going to handle money, God's way. This is what he promises. That's his promise. It's not just because it's a little faith. It started little, but it grew deeper, broader, wider, right? It choked out doubt, it choked out distraction. It choked out the shortcut instead, in a way that God's blessing can move, it takes over. God wants your faith to take over your money management, not your money management. Take over your faith, right? Because when that happens, you'll be content.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:50]:
You'll be content that there's a process. You'll Be content even when it's upside down. Why? Because you know that things are happening even when it looks like nothing is happening. You know, sometimes it looks like nothing's happening. You guys ever been in that place? Man, I've been working at this thing for months. I've been working at these things for years, and it doesn't feel like it's happened. In Hebrews 2 and close with this. In Hebrews 2, the writer says this, and it's talking about Jesus and how he came to earth, right? Looked like a little lower than the angels because he became a man, that the one who created all things, who is the exact representation of the radiance of the living God, the Son of God came, he says, and that everything was put in subjection to him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:50]:
And then he says this in verse 8. Now, in putting everything into subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, though at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. In other words, though, everything had to bow to the name of Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:11]:
When.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:11]:
We look at the world, what is he saying? We don't see that always at play. Are there evil people who rule in the land at times, right? Are there injustices? Do the powerful at times take advantage of the less powerful of the weak? Yeah, it happens at times, right? Do you know the one who lies, the one who mocks God, do they sometimes rise into positions of leadership or influence? Yeah, it happens, right? But this is what he says. But in verse nine, but we see him. Can you do me a favor? Can you just circle that phrase? We see him because the problem is not that there's things that don't seem to be in subjection to Jesus. So what are you focused on? Are you focused on the places where it doesn't look like how it's supposed to at the right time? Or do you focus on Jesus? Do you see him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. When you look at the economy, does the economy look like it's all in subjection to Jesus? Maybe, maybe not. You look at your health, you look at your finances, you look at your circumstances. Does it all look like that? Maybe, maybe not.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:53]:
But what are you focusing on? You know, we were in a meeting and we were talking a little bit about the Esther Project, what we do in Myanmar. And I was just telling somebody and, you know, just about how, you know, there's like 700 kids in there. And you know how God's moving and training that's going on. And, you know, some of the things that we're doing and feeding, kind of like some relief efforts. We do a lot of relief efforts because if the kids are starving, they can't learn. So it's making sure the orphanages, we don't have any orphanage, but we'll resource them so that kids can have something to eat, they can get clean drinking water so they don't get dysentery and are sick all the time. Right. And so we talked a little bit about that and how they baptized 80 people this year.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:59]:
Right. That's more than a lot of churches. Right? That's more than our church this year. Right. They baptized. It's like, man, it's amazing. And so he said, this guy asked me, so how is it going then in the country politically? Oh, it's a mess. It's worse than it's ever been.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:16]:
Right. There's just war all over the place. And if the central government falls, nobody knows what's really going to happen because all of these factions, they're not trying to take over. They just don't like the junta that took over. So they're just fighting for their little region because they're going. And so it's all over. The war is all over the place. And so he said, wait, I thought you said it's going good.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:43]:
I said it is. You asked me how it was politically, right, and yeah, it sucks. But what are we focused on? What are we focused on? Because we see Jesus moving even in the toughest situations. And our staff in Myanmar, what are they focused on? They're focused on what Jesus is doing. Are there things that they're afraid of? Yes, there are. Are they. Do they want to not be conscripted off the street? Yes, they don't. Is it a risk every time they go out? Yes, it is.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:29]:
Yes, it is. But they're looking at Jesus. They're not just looking at the circumstance. And so there's a strength in them. There's a sense that if we could change that circumstance, would we? Yeah, absolutely we would. But we focus on Jesus. When you focus on him and you draw close to him, things change. Why? Because we start to change.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:06]:
That's how you learn to be content. Becoming content isn't automatic. It's when you learn, you don't compare, don't confuse your self worth and your net worth. Right. When we go to these processes, look at Jesus and then we'll find what shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? He's still your provider. He's still your healer. He's still your shepherd, right? He's still the miracle worker. He's still the comforter, right? He's still the light in the darkness, right? He's still going before you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:04]:
He still has a plan for you. He still has a way to funnel resources to you. And if we trust him, we learn to manage our money the way God instructs us. That you'll be free and that you'll be in a place where you can be generous. When? I don't know when, but I know who. And I know that he never fails. Amen. You know, we're going to prepare our hearts to take communion together in a second here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:46]:
And you know that we just have the elements here. And it's a piece of bread and a cup of juice, and they symbolize the blood and the bread, the blood and the body of Christ. But I don't believe that communion is purely symbolic. It's sort of like when you have faith in God that the real presence of Jesus responds to faith. When we draw close to him, what does it say? He draws close to us. And he said this, that when you take these elements, he says, there I am in the midst of. And so to respond in faith with these things invites the living presence of the living Jesus. It's not just we do it in memory of Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:51]:
Like, you know, I mean, a couple days ago was my dad's birthday. I thought about my dad. That's not what Jesus is saying because my dad wasn't here. My dad's in heaven now. But he's saying this. When we meet him in the communion elements, he says this. I draw close. What does he do? Sometimes he renews us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:22]:
Sometimes he reveals himself to us. Sometimes he strengthens us, Sometimes he heals us. Sometimes he does whatever he needs to do. He does whatever he wants to do. And would you bring yourself before the living God when we take these communion elements? Go ahead and take these elements. Can come up at your own pace, and then we'll take them together at the end. Let me tell my story.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:11]:
I was a wretch I remember who I was. I was lost I was running out of time Sin, separation, waited reach was far too wide from the far side of the chasm.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:38]:
Lord, I know it's been many blessings that we've had and there's been many trials. Lord, I know there's a numbness sometimes I. I can let my mind think about that. But Lord, I just claim the blood of Jes. Father, we thank you, Lord, that when you came and you paid the price, Lord, that by the blood it was just winning our salvation.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:16]:
It was working every purpose, every choose Jesus, Lord.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:23]:
So we just confess. We know there's been disease. We know there's been cars disease.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:30]:
We know there's been things they talk.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:32]:
About Parkinson's or whatever it is. But Father, we just have the darkness. Our identity is not just tight, man. Our identity is from you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:44]:
Not we do it because we. We earned it. It's not we do it because, you know, then we can be saved. If you're. In fact, if you're here and maybe you're watching online, and to be honest right now, if you were to die today, you're not sure if you'd go to meet Jesus, Taking communion isn't going to solve that for you. You know what will? Trusting in Jesus. If you were to stand before God and he says, why should I let you into heaven? And if you're saying because I wasn't a bad guy, if you're saying because I think my good outweighed my bad, you know, I wasn't like, you know, those guys. That's not how you get to heaven.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:34]:
How you get to heaven is that you've been redeemed. You've been paid for. You may not have heard of this company, Mizuho securities, but in 2005, this Japanese investment firm was dealing with the IPO of a Japanese company. And it planned to sell the shares. One share. One share at 610,000 yen. At that time, it was about $5,000. But the trader actually reversed the order of the fields instead of selling the shares.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:17]:
One share at 610,000 yen. He sold 610,000 shares at 1 yen. That mistake cost his company $225 million. It's a price he could never, ever repay from one keystroke. But you know what? Sometimes we don't know the value. We don't know the. The pain that one keystroke of our lives have done that. If I could never repay God for the things that I've done, this man could never repay.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:04]:
You know, when I remembered that story, I immediately wanted to find out what was the guy's name? You know what it says? It says the name was never publicly released. The company forgave him and covered him. You know, the thing is that in some ways, this is what Jesus does. He's not interested in shining all your sin to the world. You know what he did instead? He covers you. He shed his blood for you. He paid the price for you. He paid the price for me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:51]:
And when we remember and we take the communion, we're under no illusions. It's not I earned it, not I deserved it. I was lost. I was dead to God. But he saved me. He paid for me with his own life. He died that I might live. And so we draw close to the God who paid the price for you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:28]:
And he's still paying. To be honest. It's paid. You're saved. But you're still being saved, aren't you? And so we remind ourselves, nothing I could ever do that would earn it, that would make us square, is only grace. Would you hold the elements before you, Father? In many ways, we're like that gentleman who made a tremendous mistake. He never realized the depth of his mistake before. He hid it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:12]:
It's only after, and sometimes, Lord, that some of us, we didn't realize the depth and the gravity of our sin until we came to know you. And we're thankful, Lord, that you didn't wait for us to know it all and take it all in. You paid it first. You paid it first. You covered us. But when we trusted you and we were washed and we were cleansed, Lord, to be honest, we started to see the weight that you carried for us. And, Lord, we could never pay that back. But we can receive it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:57]:
We can celebrate it. We can honor it. And that when we do, you said that you draw near to us. You are in our midst. That we thank you for the body that was broken, the body of Jesus. Lord, we take this bread because he said, I am the bread of life. And that, Lord, that we needed to eat his body and drink his blood. And Lord, People didn't understand it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:27]:
And sometimes we don't understand everything that's going on. But we understand that your body was broken. So we take the cup of bread. Would you take it? And Lord, we confess. At times we still struggle. And if there's something that you need to confess, would you just confess it? If there's something you need to present to him, would you present it? If there's a place you need his touch, would you tell him, Lord, can you touch it? Because he said this, that by his stripes we have been healed. Lord, we just received the fact that we just need to rest. Restoration in certain areas of our life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:14]:
For some of us, maybe we're even thinking our finances, Lord. Maybe we're thinking our health. Maybe we're thinking our spirit, Lord, maybe we're thinking of relationships. But Father, we just thank you that, Lord, we draw near to you. You're the healer, you're the redeemer, Lord, you're the one who can make us clean. Thank you that you have. But thank you that you're still doing. Doing it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:40]:
We need the cup. Would you take the cup? Can we sing the rest of that? And would you sing that as your prayer? And we thank him for the blood that was applied for me, for you. Let's sing that together.