Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
Hey, good evening, everybody. Hope you guys having a good night. In case you didn't make the connection when Jeff was going over, you know, the calendar and saying, hey, next week at Hookele, that means that if you want to come to Saturday service, don't come here next week. Right? Because we're going to be in Kapolei. And one of the reasons, just in case you're wondering, why do we do that, it allows us to actually do one setup and one breakdown in January, which we don't normally get to do. It gives our people who our Levite team is what we call them. The Levites are the guys who prepared the sanctuary in the Old Testament. And they still do the same thing even in our days, right? So they turn a cafeteria, they turn a school into a sanctuary.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:48]:
And so what it does is allows us to kind of move everything over, worship in one place Saturday, Sunday, and then candlelight, and then to be honest, the following Saturday, the following Sunday, because we're going to pause Saturday service that one week just to give our teams a little bit of a break. And then the following Sunday in January, the 4th, and then we bring everything back. And so it allows the teams to kind of rest a bit. And so thanks for know, understanding how that works because, you know, everybody who's volunteer, everybody who's part of the dream team, everybody who wants to make a difference, we don't want to take that for granted. Right. And so give them the rest because they work hard, they invest, they serve, but we don't have to work hard all the time, right? So there's times to. We want everybody to enjoy their time with family, with friends as well. So that's what's going on.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:47]:
But hey, I hope you're enjoying this Christmas season and enjoying the ride. But sometimes, you guys ever notice the ride gets a little bit bumpy? Right. Every once in a while it gets like that. Sometimes things just get long. And it was like I had a long day this week. I was out here on Wednesday just kind of doing that for extra things, right, where there's different things to get done, come in early and stay a little late and, you know, just doing things. Some things, detailed work, some things financial stuff, some things about the fun part, like able to do small groups and then creative planning and then just making sure all the things are being prepped for the right things because there's going to be a lot of movement for us in the next few weeks. And so, you know, it was almost seven by the time I was leaving.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:35]:
And as I Was getting to ready to leave here, you know, it's already dark and stuff like that. I had one more errand to run, and then I can finally go home, have dinner with my wife and with my family. And, you know, know, you jump in the car, start the car. Great, that the car starts up good. But as I'm pulling out, I just, you know, you just get that sinking feeling because the something is not right, you know, And I turn the engine off, go outside, look, sure enough, the tires flat, nail stuck in. You know, it wasn't a mystery because I could totally see the nail stuck right in the center of the tire. And, you know, when I saw that, I got like, oh, man, what? That's a drag. But, you know, I've changed enough tires in my life, right? So go back to the car.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:19]:
Go open the trunk. I see the spare, loosen it all up. Look for the, you know, the jack kind of the tools, right? So I see the handle, I see the lug wrench. I have the key for the tire lock, all that, but I don't notice the jack. And so I look on the other side, and I guess that's where the jack was supposed to be. And there was no jack, right? And you know, it's a used car, right, that I bought a few years ago. And I thought I looked for everything, but I guess I realized I saw all the stuff on the one side, but I didn't realize that jack was missing. And so.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:55]:
Oh, you know, you start thinking, man, you know, so I'll ask my wife to come out. She'll pick me up. We will kind of figure something out. We'll get a jack from another vehicle, and we'll be able to do this thing. And I just was thinking all this movement, then we can take the tire to get it filled in and all that repaired. And then as I was there, you know, like, Hal, who was singing tonight, told me, hey, you know, this happened to me a little while ago, but did you want, you know, like to call your roadside assistance? I said, no, no, I don't need a tow. I mean, I'm not going to tow it anywhere just for a flat tire. He said, no, no, no, no.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:34]:
The. They came out and changed the tire for me. I said, they do that? Never heard that before. I didn't know. So I called them and I asked them, hey, do you guys do a tire change? Right? Because I tried to change my tire, but I realized I didn't have the jack. And they go, oh, yeah, yeah, we can send someone out. So they sent someone out and, you know, basically by the time he came, we had to wait a little while. But by the time he came, you know, it's easy, right? They have the tow truck, they can do this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:02]:
He has the pneumatic hammer, right? The pneumatic drill pulls everything off quick, gets it changed. And, you know, I was pretty stoked because my spare, when I noticed, wasn't even the, you know, you guys know, get the mini spares, right? Like the little Japanese car kind of tire, right? But this is a full size spare tire. So, you know, like all of a sudden I'm off, I'm rolling, right? But sometimes, you know, you just. The prayer is, you know, lord, man, what a beautiful day. And sometimes the prayer is, lord, just get me through Wednesday, right? And so Wednesday was kind of like one of those days. It like, lord, help me just get through this Wednesday. And, you know, like, one of the things I think that we need to understand is that that hope is an important part of life and that God wants Christmas to be a reminder that he brought hope that was to change the whole world. And last week we started our series on a hope that changes the world by saying that God has to start somewhere.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:03]:
And often when God starts, it seems incredibly slow that the promise is given. You see this in the scriptures. You see it time of Abraham that, like, you're going to be a father of many people. So many people that there'll be a. You'll be called the father of a multitude. And he was. No kids, no nothing past childbearing age, him and his wife, right? And man, that promise seems slow. Years and years and years, right? Went by, 20 years goes by and nothing happens.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:37]:
And then all of a sudden, it's faster than you can think. And there's this principle that sometimes God talks to you about something in your life. Then he says, I'm going to do this thing. And it seems slow, right? And you're waiting, waiting, Lord, when? When, Lord? And then all of a sudden, when God starts to move, it feels like, whoa, whoa, whoa, can we slow the train down a little bit, right? That's part of the way the kingdom operates. Tonight, what we'll see is something else that before hope is revealed is it has to be prepared. And in Luke's Gospel, God prepares the way by involving some of the most faithful, spiritually powerful individuals. And then he also works in sometimes the least likely people. And the hope that changes the world is not reserved for just one kind of people, right? It's not reserved for the Holy Holies, it's not reserved for those who are far and those who are lost.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:35]:
It is for all people. So do me a favor, turn to your neighbor, says the good news is for everybody. Right. You know who that includes? Includes you. Right? Includes me and includes all the people, whoever you can think of. Right. And so this morning, this evening, let's take a look. We're going to look at just basically three simple things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:57]:
But that sometimes God comes to different people, sometimes in different ways, and sometimes he works in different situation. But God always prepares the world for the hope by both inviting the faithful as well as the forgotten. If you've been a believer, some of us you've been a believer. So first from when you were a kid, right? And some of us you've been believers, you know, over the last five years or 10 years. But your life has been marked by faithfulness to God. Your life has been marked by a pursuit of God and the things of the Spirit and that you are kingdom minded person, you know, God sees you because God also sees and uses the faithful. Right? That's the first point. God sees and uses the faithful.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:45]:
And when we see the preparation for the birth of Jesus, the coming of the Messiah, that God coming to earth, Emmanuel, that he starts, he starts with the faithful. We see this in the book of Luke, in the very beginning of the book of Luke, we see his preparation going on. And it says this in verses 15 to 7. We're going to read that together. And so would you be kind enough? Let's stand in reverence for God, reverence for his Word. We're going to read this together. Ready? Let's begin. In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah and he had a wife, Elizabeth, and they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and the statutes of the Lord.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:35]:
But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. And you know, we see this situation and it says, and Herod was, was king of Judea. Where else do we see Herod as king of Judea when Jesus is born, right? So this is the same time frame. This is actually a few months. What, what takes place is a few months before the angel visits Mary. And we see this aspect that the description of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. And how does it describe them? It says they were both righteous and walking blamelessly in all God's word, right? His commands and his statutes. I don't know how God is going to describe you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:22]:
Or me. But wouldn't it be awesome if God describes us like this right now for some of us, we go like, ah, not the words God can use for me, but I understand that. Don't worry, there's another half of this message too. But here's the thing that they were faithful people. It doesn't mean they were sinless people, doesn't mean they were perfect people. That's not what it says. It says they were faithful, right? That they walked before God. God called them righteous, right? And there's a calling of righteousness that, that God gives us through Christ.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:56]:
But in this season, that before Christ comes, he's working some preparation. And they were deeply faithful, but at the same time quietly overlooked. And why do I say that? It's because it says that they were without child. And in these days there it was a stigma, it was a social stigma that took place that if you were childless, that you were considered maybe cursed on one end or maybe overlooked on the other end, right? And so they bored this guilt they bore this social stigma, but they kept serving God faithfully. And sometimes people think and say stuff about you or about me, right? And you know, sometimes there's a little bit of sting to it, right? Sometimes there's a little bit of an edge to it. But you know what? Stay faithful because your faithfulness matters. So before you seated, do me a favor, turn to your neighbor says, stay faithful because it matters. How faithful was he is that Zechariah was a priest, right? Zechariah was a priest.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:04]:
And if you've read the Old Testament, we understand that there was a temple and there were priests who functioned in there. The Levites were the guys who got everything ready, they cleaned stuff. But the priests were the ones who offered the incense. The priests were the ones who did the sacrifice. The priests were the ones who one time a year would enter the high priest. One time a year would enter beyond the veil that separated the holy part of the temple. The whole temple was holy, but it says there's the inner portion, that where the Ark of the Covenant was situated, that part was called the holiest of holies, that the place where the presence of the living God is was manifested in a physical location on earth in that place by the spirit of God. Yet it says in that time that Zechariah is actually he was one of these guys that it was said that if you were able to ever offer incense in the the temple itself, it was a thing that happened very rarely because you were chosen by lots of.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:10]:
And there was a rotation, right? And there were a number of priests. There were a number of priests. So that if a person was able to do that, they would say that that was a blessing. Because not everybody gets to do that in their life. If you were a priest your whole life, right? And so Zechariah truly was blessed, but he had to keep serving. He had to keep his faith. He had to start serving even when God didn't answer his prayer, the way that he prayed, even when he was. It doesn't say that he was told that we'll bless you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:43]:
It doesn't say that God promised Zechariah anything, right? But they kept faithful even when there was no response, even when things were not turning out the way that they'd hoped, even when they were righteous and devoted, even though they were barren. They were spiritually respected, but in some ways socially disappointed. And so we see that sometimes you can serve faithfully without recognition or reward. And many of us that the things that you do for God, nobody sees the things that you do for God, the prayers that you pray, the things that you do behind the scenes, prepping something. And if you're a kid's zone teacher and you're. You're preparing a lesson, nobody sees that. Maybe the kids see it, but adults don't see it. Parents don't see it, right? For those who come early to, to load up trucks and move things, nobody sees that stuff, right? People who practice, who lead worship and they do that thing, you know what they're learning, songs, they're practicing beforehand, nobody sees that stuff, right? There's things that all of us do.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:58]:
When you're faithful, you know, sometimes if you're a stay at home mom or you're a working mom and you're that kind of a thing, you do your 9 to 5, you do your full time, whatever the hours would be, and then you come home and you make dinner again. You know, to be honest, it's not glamorous, it's not always recognized. But without that kind of thing to serve our family, right? Or husband or father or whatever the case, right? That you're taking care of your parents, nobody sees those things, but God sees, right? Isn't that a good news that God sees? Do it for you? Turn to your neighbor, say God sees, right? He knows your faithfulness, it honors him, even if the world doesn't see it. But you know, they weren't able to have children and I'm sure it was a struggle, right? If you've ever known anybody who's wanted Children and not been able to have children. It is one of the most difficult pains I know that there is out there, right. And the disappointment and sometimes we're wondering and the ideas that go on and we don't always know why. And you might know medically why certain things haven't happened, but you don't know why. God doesn't answer, right? Sometimes we have that kind of a place.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:18]:
But God often begins bringing world changing hope in the midst of some kind of pain, in the midst of some kind of weakness, in the midst where we can't do this on our own, we can't do this just in, in our own strength. And sometimes it's in the midst of that that God gets all the glory because it would never happen. Apart from that, anybody know the name Chuck Colson? Chuck Colson kind of grew up as a. Always an achiever, always a great student athlete, as a younger man, became an attorney, became moved up the ranks in the law field, becomes involved in politics till he becomes the right hand man of the President of the United States. And yet in his bid to serve his country, in the bid to serve his President, he does some things that he's not supposed to, right? He's involved in some things that cut some corners, illegal. And he's discovered. And that thing was called Watergate. I don't know if that sounds familiar, but they were spying on the other party and they did all this stuff.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:37]:
And Chuck Colson was one of those guys, he gets arrested and he loses all the position. And in Washington D.C. they said that when you have the power, you have the connections, that your phone is ringing off the hook. And when something like this kind of scandal happens, nobody calls. The calls stop, he's imprisoned. And you know that it's in the midst of that time that Chuck Colson, as he's in prison, he finds Jesus. And it's in that moment that God uses in his life, that something about being in that moment when he was in prison and being in that place when he felt alone, being in that place where he couldn't believe the mistakes that brought him to this place. How his pride, how his ego, how it's brought him to this place.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:38]:
But he met Jesus and you know what he started to say is that God, if you can use me in whatever way that you can, I surrender myself. God began to use him. Not in his area of strength, not in his connections in the political field or his talent as an attorney, but God used his time in prison and he began this ministry called Prison Fellowship and as he looks back, he says, you know, God didn't use my greatest achievements for his greatest glory. He used my greatest shame. And sometimes we need to say that even when you're faithful, even the faithful still need to trust God, that we all have areas of our life still not done right, still working out, still believing God for something sometimes still an open wound, an unhealed area. All of us have that right. You don't get totally, totally perfectly healed in this life. You don't.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:50]:
I wish it was. I'll say this. You can be changed. You can be transformed. You can know the peace of God, you can know the power of God. But will you be perfect? Not on this side of eternity. It doesn't happen. That happens in heaven.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:09]:
It says that in that moment, whether it's in the twinkling of an eye when he returns, or you take your last breath on earth to take your first breath in heaven, it's at that point you're changed, you're transformed. All the pain, all the stuff, it's gone. Old things pass away in this life. We get renewed, but we're not perfect to the next life. That's Chuck Colson, right? And you know that was Zechariah, priest, man of faith, man of honor, man of righteousness, faithful to the word of God. And he's doing his thing in the temple. We keep reading. If you keep reading after verse seven, he goes in the temple and he's doing his business, right? Making.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:07]:
Preparing for the offering of the incense. And all of a sudden it says he hears a voice. And he turns around and an angel of the Lord is in there. And the impression you get is that it's dark and all of a sudden there's light. And the first line, what does an angel say whenever he encounters a person? Don't be afraid. In other words, like that. This is not like a fat little baby, you know, with wings, right? You guys, it's like the kind of Renaissance thing. That's not how angels look, right? They are often fearsome.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:43]:
They're frankly terrifying. That's why they say, don't be afraid, right? Sometimes they're portrayed as like a giant, right? Sometimes they're portrayed like a mighty warrior. But he says, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And this is John, later becomes known as what, John the Baptist, Right? So he wasn't Southern Baptist. That's a whole different thing, right? But he baptized people, right? So that's the kind of a thing. And he will go, he says he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. He's going to have a role that calls people to make a change in their life, to make a U turn. Aren't you glad that God allows u turns? Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:37]:
Ever gone down the wrong road and felt like, oh my gosh, I'm stuck going down the wrong road, I don't know how to turn around. But the good news is God allows U turns. And he says this, though, that it's because that ministry of John allows people to make U turns. And he starts preaching about the fear of the Lord. He starts talking to them about the fact that we face judgment, that what this does is it prepares the hearts of the people, that when Jesus comes on the scene, that he brings a solution that they had no solution to, right? Of restoration, of redemption, of forgiveness, of hope, of living a kingdom life. But they wouldn't have been as receptive to Jesus had they just been kind of living their own life if they've just been living, chasing the material dream, if they've just been chasing fame, fortune, and not aware that one day you're going to stand accountable, right? And so John's ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus. And hope is often prepared. While people sometimes just simply do what God called them to do, even when it feels unnoticed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:03]:
When you, when you, you care for a person in a difficult situation, you visit somebody in the hospital or somebody who's been incarcerated and you call somebody because they haven't, you know what? Nobody sees that stuff. But God sees it. He says this, that the disobedient and the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. God's always trying to prepare his people for what he's trying to do. Zechariah believed God, but I think he struggled probably with God's timing, right? You ever struggle with God's timing? I think if we're honest, we want what we want. When. When we want it. Yeah, right now.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:50]:
That's when we want it. And anything that's not now feels long, right? Anything not now feels late. But he kept at it, he kept serving, he kept trusting. Was he trusting really, for children? I don't know if he was. Sometimes we even die to a dream. You ever have a dream, die? It's hard. It's hard. But we look and we say, maybe the curtain has closed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:26]:
Maybe I missed my shot. Maybe it's too Late for me in this area of my life. But, you know, it didn't stop him from being faithful. But here's the good news, is that sometimes when you think that dream is dead and you place it in God's hand, you know what he does? Sometimes he blows the wind of the spirit and resurrects a dead dream he brings when we surrender. At times, those dreams that sometimes have died, sometimes God receives that and he says, you know what? You'll see it in heaven. And sometimes he literally blows on it and causes that dream to live. And I believe that Zechariah, because they were past the age of bearing children, and there was no such thing as ivf. There's no such thing as.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:18]:
Right. You know, hormone treatment. Right. And all that fertility stuff. And if you've ever seen a woman on fertility drugs, you watch out. No, but, like, it does some stuff to your moods. But, you know, the thing is that they. They'll do it, right? They'll do it to receive the promise, right? They'll do it to have that child.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:38]:
People will do anything to do to have a child at times. But this is what he does. He just says, I'm just gonna keep serving even if I don't get what I want. Even if it doesn't look the way that I think my life was supposed to look. Because often it starts with a pain that brings us a humility that leads us to dependence, right? When you keep being dependent on God, and then. And there's a moment in your dependence, God reveals himself. That's what happens. When the angel comes, he says, zechariah, your prayer has been heard.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:17]:
You know, your prayer has been heard as well. Your prayer has been heard. God hears all your prayers. He knows he's heard your prayer. And sometimes I don't know exactly how it works, and it's for different reasons and different things. Sometimes God's like we talked about. He's working things out. Sometimes he's changing us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:40]:
Sometimes he's changing the situation. Sometimes he's working in the world. You look at the world right now, there's like. There's crazy shifting that's happening in the world worldwide. Different things at work. God is moving because these days are drawing to a close. He is preparing us. We should be under no illusion of that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:04]:
God is advancing us toward a point. And. And at the same time, God wants us to encounter him. Sometimes we come to a realization like that Zechariah had that. You know what? When he experiences this, there is a commissioning to him. There is an authority. And then you see a fruit for him. What was the fruit? The fruit was he had a son.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:33]:
The fruit was that what he had hoped for and dreamed for and prayed for all of his life as a married man, as a married couple, that God hurt it. And you know what that tells us is that God never wastes your hurt. He never wastes your pain. He knows the pains and disappointments that you and I have. And all of us have them. All of us have them. But he doesn't want it to be wasted. You ever heard of a man named Nick Vujicic? He is most.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:13]:
One of the most prolific speakers, speaking in schools, public events all around the world. And we've kind of partnered when Nick did a broadcast across the nation and throughout the state. And we. We were part of that. We broadcast here. We did it where we were at, uh, West Oahu as well. But he's most known as the guy without limbs, right? No arms, no legs. And, you know, what he has mentioned in his story is that when he was born, right, that with this birth defect, that his parents, they were heartbroken, but they loved him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:57]:
And then he really struggled, like, with his disability. He really struggled that. And I've seen him before, like, literally in person, when I didn't know who he was. And we were eating with. I was eating with my friend at Bubba Gump. You guys. Remember you said bubblegum in Ala Moana. And I see them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:16]:
I see them. I'm sitting like this, and I see somebody get wheeled into a chair, a wheelchair, and I'm trying not to stare. You guys ever been in that place? Try not to stare because there's a guy over there that. He just looks like a stump in the head. Like, no arms, no legs. We're talking story, but I'm kind of like, doing one of those, trying not to stare. I didn't know who he was, right? And then later on, I find out this is the guy. And I'm sure he's gone through that his whole life, right? And some people don't even try not to stare.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:53]:
And if you've had kids, right, I've had kids. My kids see somebody walking with the kids, and there's a guy, you know, with some kind of handicap. And I remember my oldest boy saying, daddy, what's wrong with that man? You know, like that kind of thing. And you're just thinking, shut up. You know, like, what's wrong with you? Like, do you have a inside voice? You know, like that in your head? You don't say Those things, right? But he's lived with that his whole life. He contemplated taking his own life. And then something clicked. He began to see, you know what? My disability, my inability makes me lean on God's ability, right? And because he leaned not in his ability that to fix everything and to do every.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:49]:
All of a sudden, a power greater than himself. And Nick will say this, right? He will say, it's like all that he's achieved, he spoke all over the world. He's been able to financially do well now, provide for a family. He has a kid, he got married, he has children, right? None of this was because he was a great guy, but because he serves a great God. And God heard his prayer. Now, it didn't get answered overnight, but at the right time it did. Sometimes we're in this place, we wonder, why did these things happen? And we don't know. Sometimes in this life we don't know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:33]:
And sometimes we don't know till something changes. And it's in that point we stay faithful when we know or when we don't know. It makes all the difference in the world. Because some of us, we're here today, if we're honest. You're not asking God to use you, you're just asking God to relieve you. There's a pain, right? Maybe you have a pain. Maybe you didn't choose that weakness. You didn't choose the loss to happen to you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:03]:
You didn't choose that. Nobody chooses stuff like that. You didn't choose the season you're in, but you're in it. And maybe you've wondered, like Zechariah, did I miss my moment? Maybe? Did I do something wrong? Does my pain disqualify me? It doesn't. It doesn't. This is what this is here for. The hope for everybody is, yes, the faithful. You know what doesn't mean the faithful don't have pains, the faithful don't have problems.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:37]:
The faithful don't have things that they're struggling with. God has not missed you. He's not missed you. He sees you and all in the scripture. What we see is God comes sometimes in our weakness as well as our strength. And that when we're just faithful, we're waiting even when we're weak. God can do amazing things. Would you be open, be faithful, because God's not done with you yet.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:14]:
We see that in Zechariah's life. But God doesn't only just work in the faithful, right? If God only worked in the faithful, he wouldn't have that much to work with, to be honest, Right. So hope doesn't require a perfect faith or perfect circumstances. We don't see that. But it does require a heart that's responsive, right? It does require a heart that's responsive. Now, aren't you glad that God sees more than the faithful? Right. Because sometimes we're not always as faithful as we want to be, not as we think we should be or we think we are. Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:50]:
But what about those who haven't been faithful? Well, God can meet them as well, and God can use them as well. And hope can be in those as well. God's not limited to who he reaches. But when the hope of the world comes into the world, Jesus was born. It wasn't with great fanfare in terms of all of Jerusalem. Never no social media, no spotlights, no fireworks. It was in a cave in the countryside. And it was a very, very austere and stark environment.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:34]:
Where do we put the baby? There's no. There's no crib. There's no bed. There's the feeding trough, right? And all the gala galas from the sheep and the goats or whatever on their head. Hey, but they put a cloth and they wrapped the baby up and they put them in there, right? And it's like. And that happened in that first night when Christ was born. But it was a difficult journey. It came quietly.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:04]:
But hope comes sometimes to not just the faithful, but also to the unlikely and the overlooked. It comes to the unlikely and the overlooked. It says it like this in Luke chapter 2. In Luke 2, 8, it says, in the same region, let's say in the same region. In the same region as what? Where Jesus was born. Right in the same place. Right in that area. Shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:36]:
And then an angel of the Lord stood before him, and the glory of the Lord shone around him. And they were terrified. But the angel said to them, what? Don't be afraid. Right? It always says that. Right? For look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy. That will be for who? All the people. All the people. Not some of the people, not for the faithful people, not for the spiritual people, not for the godly people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:04]:
It says all the people. For all the people. Today in the city of David, a savior was born for you. Who is the Messiah, the Lord. Now, this would have been as people heard this, as this unfolded, and then as the Gospel starts getting told. This is the second chapter of. Of the Gospel of Luke. When that Luke wrote the story out, he wrote it in order.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:32]:
He wrote it like in a chronological order. Some gospels are not chronological. If you try to read the Gospel of John and think everything is chronological, you can get messed up because it's not. It's more thematic. There is a little bit in there, but it's not always like, wait, what? You know, there's different things and. But Luke kind of writes it in a chronological order so that everybody understands. So early on, we see the first people that get the announcement that Jesus is born is not the priests, it's not the prophets, it's not all the faithful people, right? It's the shepherds. Why would that be so hard? Is because although that we see in the Old Testament, like with King David and Abraham and people like that, they were Isaac and Jacob, those guys, right? They were shepherds.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:33]:
And shepherds were kind of a noble tradition, right? Because they were people who. It was an economic essential. It was socially respected in those days. It developed the character and faith because they defined offended flocks and they used it as training for leaders. David learns to be a leader and to be courageous by being a shepherd, right? Being diligent, right? Practicing all of these things. We see this in the Old Testament, but by the time Jesus is born, the New Testament, things have changed, right? So they're not seen as courageous, sacrificial leaders and. And who take personal responsibilities that God himself calls himself what, the good shepherd, right? The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:27]:
What's the difference? Israel has become urbanized. The cities have developed. Jerusalem has been a capital, but there's other cities that are developing in the area. So where Jonah takes off, that Joppa was already like, become a city. There's cities in Jerusalem now. So because there's cities and there's Romans who have come, the Romans have all the power. The Romans are the elite. The temple priests are kind of like the ruling caste.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:03]:
The economically expendable become the people who have no power, no land. Guess what shepherds are. They're outdoor all year round. They didn't have any land, so they were nomadic. They just took the sheep from place to place and fed them. They didn't have houses, right? So all of a sudden they're not like this respected group. And all of a sudden the status of shepherds went from something that was like this to kind of like that, right? They were lower class. They were.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:43]:
To be honest, they were the guys that, like, if the shepherds came through town and we were all in. Some shepherds came in, some of you would take your phone and you would. Or your wallet, and you would. You would put it in your pocket, right? You'd hold onto it a little tighter. That's the reputation that shepherds have. When they came through, certain things might go missing, right? And so shepherds were of the lowest status that we see in the writings of the time of Jesus. At that time, that shepherds were considered in the same group as tax collectors and sinners. So they're not seen as the good.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:28]:
The good guys. But the good news is that God doesn't wait for people to climb up to him, that he comes down to where we are. Isn't that good news? Right? And so God doesn't wait for people to clean up their act so that somehow they can come to him, but he comes to them so that wherever they're at, and then their life begins to change, right? And so if that's the case, if God can bring hope not just to faithful, but sometimes to those who are overlooked, sometimes to those who are unlikely, sometimes to those who have a bad reputation, maybe we ought to stop qualifying who should hear the gospel and who should not hear the gospel. Maybe you ought to stop qualifying who we invite and who we don't invite, who we pray for, who we encourage, who we share the gospel with, who we say, hey, you know, God has a plan for your life. Because God has a plan not just for the guy who's all together, and he's like, you know, this guy, if he just gave his life to Jesus, he's like, we want to share sometimes with the guy who acts and walks like a Christian, but he's just not a Christian yet. You guys, like, sometimes like, man, this guy would make a great Christian. To be honest, that guy probably trusts in his own goodness, right? I've known people my whole life that sometimes it's like they're just way better people than me. But like, one of my neighbors, nicest guy, fought in the 4, 4, 2.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:04]:
He catch fish. He shares, like, you know, unfortunately, I never knew him to be a man. His wife, his kids went to church, but he. He never went because I don't think he thought he needed it, right? So we ought not to qualify people who God can use, because God can use anybody. True shepherds respond, right? Shepherds are responsive to the gospel. This is what we see in this thing. It says that when the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened which the Lord has made known to us. They had no theological training, right? They had no credentials, but they had a heart to seek God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:02]:
And they walked out in joy. Says they hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. And after seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child. And all who heard it were amazed when the shepherds, what the shepherds said to them. And, you know, those who receive hope freely, undeservedly, often share it the most boldly. You know, when it's like, man, my life turned around. You know, when I came to Jesus, I was like, I knew I didn't deserve it. You know, I knew, like, I was really sensitive in the beginning about people trying to preach to me, like when I was in college and all that, because if somebody were ever to say to me, and there were guys, like, sometimes I would see him in Wahiawa preaching on the street saying, repent.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:54]:
And I didn't know what repent meant, but I felt like I just knew. It sounded like, not good, right? I didn't understand what it meant. And when it says, the gospel says I'm a sinner, I was a little defensive, like, whoa, you're calling me a sinner? Like, what do you think that means? I don't know, something bad? No, that's not what it means. It says that you missed the mark, right? I didn't understand that. But when I was heard that, I would say, of course I'm a sinner, then, if that's what that means. Of course I'm that. Of course everybody's that, right? Of course everybody's that. Nobody perfect, right? We all mess up.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:35]:
We all hide stuff. We all did something wrong. We all have our stuff, right? We all have our stuff. But it's when you receive that grace, it's so easy to share it because you know you didn't deserve it, right? And, you know, whoever else, they don't deserve it. You're not sure, because people deserve it. You share it because they need it. You share it because God loves them. And so what does this mean? Right? What does this mean? I want to kind of land the ship a little bit here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:13]:
We're going to move in this last point that hope advances in and through, right? We say both the devout and the disregarded, right? So no one's so spiritual that they don't need hope, right? Because you can go to church your whole life. You can get up and preach, you can have a prophetic ministry if you want. You can have whatever, but you still need hope, right? There's still things that's not done in your life, right? The faithful can still grow weary. Obedience can sometimes feel hard when things don't change, right? But no one at the same time is so broken, too far out to be able to say I don't qualify for hope, right? There's nobody I love. What the prophet Isaiah says that my arm is not short, that it cannot reach down. There's no hole that's so deep that God cannot reach in that place. And sometimes we see people. You see some people like you go, man, I thought their life bottom out here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:21]:
But we always know, to be honest, unfortunately, that sometimes when people are in a downward slide, there's always another bottom, right? That's the unfortunate part. But you know what? No matter how far that bottom is, there's no hole that's so deep that God cannot reach down and grab ahold of someone, right? And so the first evangelists were the shepherds, right? The first one to experience was a priest. And so whether it begins at the margins with the shepherds or it begins with those that we could see, God would use a faithful man. A man faithful, filled with faith. A man who's obedient, the man who's righteous. It says. But sometimes we have a different role. Sometimes we have a different role because Zechariah prepared the way through the birth of his son, who they raised in a godly way.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:23]:
He was a man who from an early age, from this he was raised and with a calling specifically in mind. Those of us who come to faith later in life, we didn't have that parenting that told us that God has a calling in your life. How do we try to figure it out the best we could? And then we rearrange our life when we figure out, okay, God, Jesus calls us different, right? But God has different purposes, different plans. And sometimes the greatest evangelist, you know who we are, the people whose lies were going the total opposite direction. But now we found God, right? Sometimes all we got to do is just tell our story. You don't tell your story because everybody knows, like, oh, yeah, yeah. You are such a perfect person. No, they know, right? They know we know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:18]:
Hope changes the world when we either seek or respond to God, right? Because everybody who responds cigars has a part to play. Now I want to kind of envision something. There's two ends of the spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is the most faithful guy, the most spiritual person that you know. It's the one who leads your Bible study. It's the one who you know, taught you in the Lord, right? It's the one who prays for you. It's that. That person, or maybe you're that person for somebody else, right? But that's on one end of the spectrum, right? So Zechariah, Elizabeth, they're on this end of the spectrum.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:03]:
They did everything right, Even though life wasn't fair to them, they played the cards, the hand that they were dealt in a way that said, I'm going to still keep following Jesus, on the other hand, is the people that everybody kind of looked down on, everybody thought looked at them, you know, kind of like, these are the sketchy guys. These are the guys who we. You can't trust them. These are the people, you know, that you don't turn your back toward these guys, right? So when you have this end of the spectrum, you know what it's saying that it doesn't matter how great you are, it doesn't matter how rugged your life has been if God can reach and use people on either end of the spectrum and that you may not identify with either one of them. Right? But what is it saying? Did anybody in between, no problem. I know them. I have a plan for them because he's the God. He's saying, look, let me give you an example.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:07]:
Because if you think, man, I'm on this end, I'm all good, you're not as good as you think, right? Because you still have used to have areas, but you can have, you can find hope even in this life. And when you're on this end and sometimes you think, and I've had people tell me straight, it's too late for me. You don't know what I've done. And you. Right, I don't know, but I know. Who, who knows? God knows. But you know what he says? Not too late for you. Right? He has a purpose and a plan for you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:48]:
So everybody in between, it's a hope. It's for all the people. Amen. So where are you today? Where? I'm asking, where are you today? Are you. I know where you identify. You're on this side, you're on this side. It doesn't matter. But you know who you reach out to.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:16]:
You reach out to the people that God brings your way. Reach out to the people that you go home to. You reach out to the people that you go to work with. You reach out to the people that you go have fun with. Sometimes you reach out to the people that you see in Costco. Now who sees like that? Isn't that like the Place. You see certain people. I see certain people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:44]:
The other day I was in Costco and I ran into a custodian I hadn't seen in a long time that he used to be the custodian at the middle school where we met for a long time. We met for a long time. We had a great partnership with him. And we used to meet there about over 14 years ago, though. So he sees me and I see him, and hey, we talk story a little bit. And, you know, then all of a sudden, he's asking me a couple things. How's things going? You know, who's that? You see, you know, this guy? And I go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, we talk about it and he asked me some, like, things like that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:21]:
We have carts that we use. And he just remember how organized we were. And he said, hey, you know what? He says it like, hey, boss, you know what? Like, ever since you guys left, never been the same. Never been the same. Other guys have come, but not the same. Hey, you know, I come back, we have AC the place we meeting now. Sorry, but AC has the bigger pool. But we're just talking.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:53]:
And so actually he just wanted to know, like, hey, where you bought the cards? And I. So I look it up and I give him this information. But I also, I said to him, you know, Rod, like, I'm glad that we. We had a debt contract record over there. But you know what? Like, hey, come. Come join us. Like, sometimes we're looking back for those old days. Come where we are now, because today is good, right? Today is just as good as it was yesterday, right? 14 years ago, whenever the glory days was, right? Today's the day.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:33]:
Today's our day for hope. I just invited him to Christmas and he said, oh, boss, I go talk to my family. And, you know, it's the hope that changes the world is when we touch the world. Because you got to touch. You got to be close enough in order for hope to be transferred. And sometimes they got to be able to see that, you know what that, you know, you're a human being too. You get your struggles. You're not preaching to people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:55:08]:
What you're sharing is, this is the hope that I found. You know, nobody rejects that. They might not receive it, but when I have asked, I have asked, and I have prayed for so many people so many times, I can count on less than one hand. There's only really two people who've ever refused. Literally, like, no, I don't want you to pray for me. Only two people like I would say literally thousands of people that I've prayed for, whether here or in mission trips or different places. Two people. One was because he was a different faith and he thought that we worship the devil.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:06]:
So he didn't. So he didn't want me to pray in the name of Jesus because he thought like, that's not the name of God. If you guys know they really like to say the name of God is Jehovah. I think it's Yahweh. More like line with Hebrew. Right. But that's one guy. Another guy, to be honest, he was just angry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:56:31]:
He was just angry. And you know, I bet if I just didn't catch him in that moment, things would be different. But everybody needs hope. And I'm glad that our God is the God of all hope. Right? Not some hope. Amen. Let's bow our heads. Let's close in a word prayer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:57:00]:
Father, we come, we bring ourselves before you. Sometimes, Lord, we don't even know where we are, but I thank youk, you do, and that we're all in need here. Even here. Even though we know youw, even though we walk with youh, Lord, even though we, we're trying to press forward, we still have things we're believing you for. We still have things that we haven't seen accomplished that we'd like to see accomplished. We still have areas of pain and hurt in our life, Lord. We still have areas that there's a bit of darkness. Lord, would you be the light not that just shines out in the darkness in the world, but would you shine that light in our darkness too? Father? Would you be the God of encouragement and strength and grace and power in our weakness? Because, Lord, that gives us the courage to tell people of the goodness of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:58:07]:
Lord, that gives us the courage to continue to stay faithful. That gives us the strength, Lord, to stand, Lord, when it seems like we don't have the strength, on our strength, but we'll rely on your strength. Thank you, Lord Jesus and Father, that for those that are in our sphere, Lord, that maybe they don't see themselves as somebody who as a churchgoer, they don't see themselves as a goody goody. Lord, I thank youk. You didn't come for goody goodies, Lord, but you came for all people. And Father, I pray that, that even if there's somebody here that to be honest, when we say stuff like this, that you don't relate. You don't think you're the faithful. You don't think that, you know, you don't think that I'm a good Christian.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:07]:
It's okay that you think that. But God only had sons and daughters. That's all he has. You never see this in the Bible, that he was a good Christian and there wasn't a good Christian. You never see that. What we see is the people of God. We see sons and daughters. And so God invites you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:59:35]:
If you're not a son or a daughter, you're not part of God's family. He invites you to be part of his family. He says, I love you. I paid the price for you. And it doesn't matter where you've been, doesn't matter what you've done or how good you think you are, how together you think you are, you still need to be part of my family. And my son came so that he would walk with you. He would become one of you. So that he knows everything that you go through.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:00:11]:
All the temptations, all the darkness. He understands that pull. But he didn't sin. He didn't sin until he became sin. When our sin was poured on him at the cross. And he said, if you'll trust in him, he'll pay for you. He'll redeem you. He'll forgive you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:00:36]:
He'll draw you close. So you don't have to be a good Christian. You just got to be a son or a daughter. That's you just this evening. And you've never made that decision before. Or maybe you have and you kind of walked away. You don't know where you are with God, but you just know that you're not close. Just draw close today and ask you that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:01:01]:
We're going to just pray a real simple prayer and just encourage you to, if that's what you want. God will hear you because he always does. And you can hitchhike along with me as we pray. Dear God, would you see me today? I realize I need you. And just like you came to the shepherds, sometimes the unlikely people, you revealed yourself. Lord, I see your goodness tonight. Thank you that you love me. Would you come live inside me today? Thank you for Jesus who died for my sin.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:01:49]:
I want to trust in him. I want to turn away from what I know is wrong. And would you help me to know you and to follow you all the days of my life? I confess, Jesus, you are my Savior. You are my Lord. Lord, I'm a child of the living God because of what you have done. And I've placed my faith in you, surrendered my heart. And I'm seeking you today. In Jesus name.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [01:02:27]:
Amen Amen. Hey, congratulations, folks, if you made that decision today. Hey, thanks for joining us. You know that this is just part of the preparation as we come to celebrate the Jesus, the Christ that Christmas is all about. Amen. God bless you guys. Thanks for joining us today.