Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]: Hey, good evening everybody. I'm bringing my sexy voice tonight, although my daughter heard me and she said, Dad, you just sound like you're coming sick. So, you know, there's a different perspective every once in a while. But, um, hey, I did want to say, uh, thank you, uh, guys, that for joining us on the 21 days of prayer and fasting. I know a lot of us, um, you know, they— we, we dug deeper, we, we drew closer, we, we stretched ourselves and It's wonderful to see, like, some people for the first time really just kind of learning what prayer is about, and some people learning what fasting is about. And so thank you for joining us for that. And, uh, can we just say thanks, Dr. Hale? He did such a great job last week, brought a capstone to our, uh, the beginning of our series. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:46]: Um, this week we're starting a brand new series. I'm just calling it Matters of the Heart. And, you know, I think we all know our heart matters, right? Your heart matters. Turn to your neighbor, just say, "Your heart matters." You know, but one of the things I kind of stumbled on maybe last week was, you know, we were in the Big Island for a conference and had to rent a car. And, you know, like, it's not that I haven't bought a car in a long, long, long time. I just bought a car a couple years ago. The only thing is I buy them at 20 years old. So they're always kind that, of you know, I'm used to a certain kind of a way, and this car was way more electronic than I'm used to. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:30]: And in fact, just after trying to start the car, I knew how you the, step you know, the brake and you push the button and all that, but when I tried to shift the car, the shifter didn't move. And it was like kind of old school, was on the steering wheel column. And I was thinking, wait, this thing is not even moving. And then I realized, oh, you don't move it, you just "You I'm like, kind of turn it like this." You know, you flip it one way, you flip it another way, or you want to put it in park, you push the button in. And I go like, "Wow, this is— it just feels wrong." You know, that's the thing. And so, but you just learn, you know, you learn how to get along with it. It was weird, but, you know, after the conference we had a few of us together and I just thought, "Hey, let's go to Mauna Kea and see the night sky, right? Maybe we catch the Milky Way and all of that." Didn't quite work out that way, but, you know, And of course, I knew it was a steep road, but as I was driving up, I was just thinking, hey, you know, some of these places are steep enough, I should probably, you know, just maybe bring it down a gear because I can kind of feel the engine straining a little bit. And then when I looked on that thing, and you try not to stare, that what I realized was there were no low gears, right? Only had drive, you know, reverse. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:46]: Park in neutral. And, and so I was just thinking, wait, um, I think we can make it up, but what about on the way down? You know what I mean? Uh, because I didn't want to be riding that brake the whole time. And so, to be honest, I started to get a little nervous. But, you know, when we got up to the top, I, I wanted to look for the instruction manual. I'm sure there's some way to do it, but no instruction manual, right? And then I, I pull out my phone, I go look for Copilot, right? Try to get the thing. And it's like, she gives me some I say she, I don't know if it's a she or he or what AI that thing is, but, you know, it doesn't give me anything super helpful. And, and so, you know, my, my concerns were, you know, not founded because it was easy to get down. But, you know, when it comes to our spiritual lives and the mechanical life, sometimes there's a great overlap that what's true sometimes in one realm is true spiritually because you don't want to get caught going up somewhere or going down something without knowing that you have the gear for it, right? And so, you know, what happened for me was that I realized just as there was no low gear, you know, the thing is, in, in our spiritual life, there's no such thing as a neutral gear, right? Because in our spiritual lives, we are either going up something or we're going down something, and We don't really get a chance to just stay in neutral. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:14]: We might think we do, but if we are, then it's generally one of two things: we are moving imperceptibly slowly uphill, or we are moving imperceptibly slow downhill, and until something begins to make it clear. Because the Bible describes this aspect of our hearts this way, you know, it says that our heart is really your your inner person, your inner man. It's the things that you think with. It's that part that you feel with. It's that— engenders your direction and your will. And whether you use the Hebrew word "leb" or you use the Greek word "kardia" to describe that, they all talk about the same thing. And Paul says it later in Ephesians 3:16, is that you would be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being. And it talks about this aspect of having a strength not yourself, outside yourself, right? And, and that, that, that's what drives us forward is this inner strength, inner power that the Holy Spirit can begin to strengthen. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:23]: And so, you know, this, this series is about the fact that our hearts have this need for us to be empowered in a certain way, to sometimes fight the downward drift, and sometimes to accelerate the upward incline, the way that we go higher. And so, but one of the things that I think that we find is nobody falls into just growth, right? It's an intentional thing. And so I think our hearts need to be, and we're gonna look this evening on 3 things really Uh, but our hearts need to be guarded, and not in the sense of like, you know, you're, you're not going to show your cards or you're, you're not going to like tell people how you feel, but that we ought not to be. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:11]: Unwise and undiscerning, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:13]: Not discerning. That we need to be guarded over our hearts, that we're— we need to be protective of our heart. We need to watch what comes into our heart, because what comes into your heart flows out of your heart. And it says it like this. We're going to read in Proverbs 4, verses 20 to 23, as the key point to that. And would you be kind enough, let's stand in reverence for God and reverence for his word. Are we going to read this together? Are we ready? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:42]: Let's read. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:43]: My son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear to my words and do not let them out of your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Above all else— let's say all else— what? Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. You know, your heart and my heart need to be protected, need to be guarded, right? It needs to be fed. Right? Needs to be given truth, and it needs to be given wisdom. Because it says this, that everything that you and I do flows out of our heart. Sometimes we like to think it flows out of our strength. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:33]: Sometimes we like to think it flows out of our mind. But the reality is, you can think one thing, but what you do and how you live flows out of your heart. And so your heart matters. My heart matters. And as a result, we need to be reminded that there's no neutral in this heart, and so that we will need to either adjust our way accordingly because we, we feel this descent or decline sometimes. And sometimes we want to increase the incline at which we're going, we want to increase the rate, and so we want to trust God to work in that way. But we're going to look at 3 things this evening that, that really dictate that. So before you're seated, do me a favor. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:19]: Just say that God says that everything you do flows out of your heart, and you can tell your. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:25]: And. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:25]: Neighbor. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:25]: Let'S have a seat. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:30]: And we all know kind of culture works— culture often works against this concept of, of guarding your heart or protecting your heart or Or being filtering what you allow into your heart, what you allow into your mind, what you allow into your life. Because culture repeatedly tells us things like what? Follow your heart, right? Do what feels right to you. Live your own truth. If it feels right, it can't be wrong, right? We hear those thoughts displayed in different ways. Sometimes you hear it in a song. A long time ago, Roxette— you guys remember who Roxette is? What did she sing? What's her most favorite song, famous song? Listen to Your Heart, right? Right? Because it's calling out to you. Listen to your heart. Maybe more recently, Elsa sings, right, in Let It Go. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:19]: She says this: No right, no wrong, no rules for me. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:24]: I'm free. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:25]: Right? Sounds good, right? Sounds nice. Moana sings what? In How Far I'll Go, she says, listen to the voice inside, right? Listen to the voice inside. Culture often repeats that mantra to follow your heart in all its forms. Maybe you've sang those words, right, in karaoke time, right? Maybe you've sang those words or said those words. I have, right? And but, you know, God says our hearts are not something just that we follow blindly, but it's something that we train. It's something that we guide. It's something that we direct. Because our feelings and our sense about it, right, that they are important, right? Now, at the same time, when I mentioned that song, "How Far I'll Go," you know, Moana saying that there's a sense of calling that she's experiencing. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:16]: You guys remember in Moana? And, you know, I think there's nothing wrong that— I think the scriptures affirm that you can have a deeply held human desire, right? Or maybe sometimes it's a restlessness to the status quo. Maybe it's sometimes you have a sense of calling or a longing for something greater, more purpose, right? God affirms that kind of longing, right? He says that, hey, I've set eternity in in the, the human heart. And, and so this, he, he, he's saying this, that yes, there is this voice, but God places desire in the heart, but he also wants to shape it. And that desire needs to be shaped. So what scripture corrects is not the fact that you, you shouldn't have an inner heart voice or whatever it is, but that, that who should be in. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:04]: Charge is really the question. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:06]: And God says this: it's, it's guiding your heart and guarding your heart and directing your heart in the right way. Because we all know what the scripture says. Proverbs 22:15 says, a youngster's heart is filled with what? Foolishness, right? Now, how many of us have in our younger days says, might as well. And then, you guys ever notice that, like, might as well just try? And it's like, all of a sudden it's like, okay, you get a bike crash, right? Might as well. And like, what happens if you play rock fight? You know, you guys ever played rock fight? Just get the rocks and you destroy each other. That's what we used to do, right? So somebody gets knocked in the head and, and somebody's crying, then we stop. And what do we do tomorrow? Hey, rock fight again! Like, so stupid, right? We we were, were dumb. Like, our brains weren't developed, uh, and maybe because we got hit in the head with too many rocks. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:56]: But, um, it says there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And so our hearts have a great capacity to be shaped, to become more, to become more like Christ, but that it, it's not when it's left untended, when it's left untrained, I think it's possible for that foolishness to do us great harm, right? And sometimes we, we pay many payments, or we pay for many years at times if we're not careful, if we, we let our heart just guide us and lead us without any kind of discernment. Because Jeremiah says it like this, or God says it like this through Jeremiah, he He says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." You know, the reality is sometimes you don't even know your own heart, right? Sometimes you may not— you ever been surprised how sinful a thought could be, right? That you thought you were past a certain thing and then somebody does something or says something or you saw something happen And there's that part of you that just says, man, if nobody was. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:14]: Around, I would teach that guy a lesson. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:18]: You guys ever been in that kind of place, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:20]: We don't always know what's in our. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:22]: Heart, and that's why God says it needs to be tended, it needs to be guarded, it needs to be cleansed, it needs to be grown, it needs to be filtered. Because not everything you do or I do or what you think or I think or what you feel or I. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:38]: Feel is always good, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:41]: I remember a few years ago, uh, when my son Jacob was going to go to the mainland, and, you know, he, he was going for school, and we're just trying to talk through this whole process with him. And it's not that we didn't want him to go, but it kind of sprung up on a last minute. And, and, you know, he wanted to do, you know, a number of things. He wanted to play sports and all that stuff. He wanted to wrestle. And, you know, we said no problem. We just wanted him to consider a few things, right? We wanted to give guidance. And that's a parent's role, right? It doesn't matter if your kid's 20 or whatever it is at the time. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:17]: And I remember, um, trying to help him to talk through some things about like, let's just think this through first. If you're not ready, we don't want you to just get up there and you don't have a place to stay, you don't have a place to live, right? Do all that kind of stuff, right? So that's like— then, and he said, no, no, Dad, I, I got him, I got him, I got him. How many of us heard that? I got him, I get him, I get him. All to hear later on. Uh, I know, get them. I know, get them. I know, get them. And so, to be honest, when we talked about it, I remember him literally saying, Dad, I know what you're saying. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:49]: Is right, but I just gotta do it my way. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:54]: And you know, that, that and that aspect, aspect he learned, he did do it his way, and he learned the hard way to his way. But the good news is this: God never let him go, right? God never lets us go. Isn't that good news? And, and so he'll never let you go, he'll never let me go. But, but sometimes, to be honest, if we don't guard our heart, we don't filter our heart, we don't protect our. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:24]: Heart, some seasons will be harder, longer, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:30]: Lonelier than they needed to be or. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:35]: Have to be because our hearts weren't shaped and guarded or trained. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:42]: We let it run wild and we accepted the mantra of culture. And God is like most human dads. They don't want to silence that inner. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:51]: Voice inside of us. They just want to help train it, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:55]: So that it leads us toward life. Because everything you do, everything I do. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:00]: Right, flows out of our hearts. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:03]: And you know, so God wants us to learn how to be teachable. Let's say teachable, right? Have a tender heart, right, that, that listens to God's word and his voice. God literally uses the term hard heart when we don't, right? What does hard heart imply? Sometimes scarred, right? Sometimes stubborn. Sometimes prideful, right? I mean, all different kind of ways that we can use it. But, but he says it like this in Hebrews 3:15. He says, as just has been said, today if you hear his voice, what? Do not harden your hearts. As you did in the rebellion. And you know, this is— this in the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, it's really a callback to what happened in Exodus. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:57]: It's really a callback to, to that aspect. He's saying he's repeating something generationally that they have experienced, is that when I'm not teachable, when I'm not listening to God and his word, what tends to happen is my heart tends to get hardened. It becomes calloused. You know, Exodus uses this phrase, and I've been reading the book of Exodus in my devotions. You know, it's one of those things that, um, starting out, right, starting out Genesis, I'm in Exodus now, and it uses this term. And I do want to describe this because it uses this term that God hardens Pharaoh's heart. You guys heard that before? God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And, and so obviously, you know, there's this sense of kind of a judgment, but But you know, God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart wasn't God forcing Pharaoh to be rebellious. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:48]: It was really God confirming the resistance of Pharaoh's heart repeatedly over time. And so God is patient, right? God is patient. You guys agree, right? God is patient. You know how patient God was? 430 years patient that they were enslaved in Egypt. Right? 430 years that the people cried out to God, right? And God was trying to do it a nice way, but people weren't listening. Pharaohs weren't listening. In fact, they said, not only do we don't have to listen to God, they said, I am God, right? And what happens is God is patient, but he doesn't wait forever, right? God doesn't always wait forever. And so we see this aspect that God makes a judgment on it, but the unfortunate thing is that Pharaoh makes it even worse. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:42]: Because as the plagues are described and it goes on, the second plague was the plague of frogs, and it overruns the whole palace, it overruns the streets and people's homes, and gets into jars and all that kind of stuff. And Pharaoh calls Moses, "Help me get rid of the frogs, right? And I'll let you go. Pray to God for me." And he says, and I'll let you guys go. And as soon as Moses prays, the frogs, you know, they start to dissipate, they end up dying, it creates a big stink and the whole thing. And instead of Pharaoh going along with the decision and the words that he said under that time of pressure, what happens? He reverts back. And this is what it says: but when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, or there was relief, what He hardened his heart. He hardens his own heart. He wouldn't listen to them as the Lord had said. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:35]: A couple, couple plagues later, it says it's flies in the land. And that's one of those things, if that happens in my— if that happened today, my wife would be like, right? She'd be like all creeped out. They were creeped out too. But it says this: Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:53]: You can harden your own heart. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:55]: You don't need God to do it, right? God doesn't want to do this stuff like that, right? But when we double down on our power, when we double down on our position, when we double down at times on my way, my thoughts, my will at times, right? Because Pharaoh's story isn't just history, it's a warning, right? When we see Pharaoh Why does he harden his heart? Because he could do a little bit of what God had done through Moses. It says when he made the, the red— he made the Nile red with blood. He says his magicians could do the same thing in a limited fashion, right? And so he says his heart gets hardened. That sometimes we can say, hey, you know, I, I built my life, I built my business, I built this you know, a ministry. But the thing is that, yeah, you were involved, you had a part to play. But you know what that does is, if we're not careful, that can harden our heart to say it's me, it's mine, right? And, and so what we need to be reminded, that warning is soften your heart, be teachable, right? Be tender before the God, listen to his voice. Because he says this, right? You can hear the voice of God in Hebrews 3:15 and still harden your heart. We see this in, in Cain and Abel. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:23]: God comes to Cain and he says, Cain, why are you so discouraged? You know, you got— I know that you're angry, but you have to master it because sin is crouching at the door if you don't. What does he do? Immediately goes out, kills his brother. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:44]: God didn't cause that. He he just, just hardened up. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:49]: In Scripture, our hearts are often compared to soil. What happens over soil over time also happens to our heart. In gardening, you know, sometimes soil can become so compacted, so hard, right, that nothing can grow. You guys ever see stuff like that, right? And it doesn't matter, right, because it's— why does that happen? Sometimes it's the heaviness of the traffic, right, that just— it literally pounds it down. Sometimes there's not enough nutrient in the soil because there's no organic matter in that thing, right? So there's no nutrition. And sometimes it's the lack of water, right? And so, you know, the thing is that sometimes you can have a hard heart You can have a hard soil, but, but if you aerate it, right, you get that little pitchfork-looking thing or that thing with all those things and you walk through, you can create holes so that the soil can kind of breathe, right? There's oxygen can get in there that, that maybe roots can grow, that you can maybe dig that deeper. You can get organic matter and put it into the ground, compost it, whatever it is. Add nutrition, right? You, you water regularly. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:00]: Maybe you cover over the soil. In fact, not just put it in the soil, you can cover it over. In the same way, if you find that sometimes your heart is hard, that, that you can confess your sin, you can confess your feelings, you you can, can do something to change it. Sometimes it's taking stuff out, and sometimes it's adding stuff in., right? Sometimes it's, it's doing the same practices which have been for every generation who. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:30]: Has known the Lord, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:31]: To come corporately to worship, gather together, right? To be in the word, to renew your mind by the word, to, to, uh, to speak life over yourself and over your future, right? To, to pray, right? To connect with God. These things tend to soften a hardened heart. Because if not, we are just left to our own devices. In, in Proverbs 3:5-6, he says what? Trust in the Lord with what? All your heart. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:02]: All your heart. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:03]: Because our heart matters. And do not lean on your own understanding. And now it's not saying ever, it's don't ultimately lean on your own understanding, right? You, you need to understand stuff, right? But he says, in all your ways acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight. Now, you know, just as we get to this point, I do want to kind of mention the fact that there's different metaphors that the scripture uses and that God uses to illustrate stuff for us or to make a point for us. And, and then we, we looked at this as what— saying that the heart is like like a well in some ways, right, that needs to be protected. If you guys have ever been on the Big Island, you see that there's— they're all water catchment system in, in a lot of those places. And is water catchment system just an open pit? No, that thing is covered, right? Because you don't want flies and bugs and grass and all that stuff to fall in, right?, or much less the rat to fall in there, right? Because it grosses you out. You would like the whole thing— it needs to be protected, right? And, and so that's one way we looked at— that's the first metaphor. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:18]: What was the second metaphor? It's like soil, right? That got to become, uh, you know, not to be hardened. And, and this, this last one we're going to look at is it's like a tree. And he says this— either— this is Jesus speaking— he says it this way. He says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad? For the tree is known by its fruit. And he says this, and he's talking to the Pharisees. He says, you brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Now, as as we're, we're looking at this passage, this, this is really coming on the heels of Jesus doing some Crazy, like, dramatic miracles, right? And some strong teaching that he's been doing. He was healing the sick, right? He was casting out demons from people, and he was teaching, speaking life and teaching the gospel. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:20]: And what did did the— what the Pharisees say when he saw that? When they saw that, they didn't say, wow, that's amazing teaching. They didn't say, like, wow, he healed on the Sabbath, like, that's amazing. This guy's arm was, like, all shriveled up, right? He didn't ever say any of that. What did they say? He said, nah, must be by the devil he does that, right? And so Jesus's response to that was, he says, you brood of vipers, right? He says, you know, you know, you can blaspheme me, and you know what, that can be forgiven, right? And so sometimes this is what the enemy uses, and it can worm its way in your mind if we're not careful. He says, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, right? And that— this is not something you just accidentally do, you actually accidentally fall into, and I might have done it before. No, you haven't done it. Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor, says, you haven't blasphemed the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because if you've ever worried about it, right, if you've ever been concerned about that,— it's the sure sign that you have it. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:28]: Because the Pharisees, they didn't care. Their hearts were hard, right? They didn't feel bad. They just— anything— it's almost like our political system today, is that other people are bad and wrong and evil. Why? Because they're on the other side. It doesn't matter what they do and. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:49]: What they say, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:50]: There's an unreasonableness to that, right? That it's similar to that. But Jesus was doing all these things, but he criticized them. Why? For the way that they're speaking. That was what? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:03]: The fruit, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:05]: That was the fruit. What was it revealing? Because Jesus goes beyond talking about the words, because what he's really addressing is what's underneath the words. What's underneath their words is their hearts. It doesn't matter what I do for you. It doesn't matter what miracle I do. It doesn't matter how clear the teaching. It doesn't matter how I reveal the heart of God, that you're going to. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:33]: Be hard to this thing, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:35]: And so he actually pronounces judgment to them, right? But, but he ends with this in verse 35. Can we read this together? The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. Now that word— do me a favor, just circle that word treasure where it says good treasure. Circle that word treasure. It says the evil treasure. Circle that word treasure on your notes if you can, because what that really says, the, the literal word is the treasure box. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:13]: It's the cash box. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:14]: It's the safe deposit box, right? He's saying that, that what you bring out of this repository, what you put into it will come out, right? So he's saying this thing. So you— the, the, we can see the fruit, but something deeper in the tree is the reason why we have the fruit.. And what is that? It, it's those roots that go down, right? And so he's saying that you will produce ultimately fruit in your life, right? Uh, maybe a secondary cause, a symptom. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:54]: Based on where you're rooted in life. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:57]: And so he's saying this: be—. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:00]: Root yourself in good soil so you can be a good tree. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:05]: Because ultimately what will come out is. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:07]: What'S in your heart. Words reveal your heart, and sometimes word. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:12]: Can even shape your heart, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:13]: They work together. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:15]: Now I'd like you to take a few moments. We just want to— we want to do a heart check today, right? And, and, uh, in the heart check, like, if you take out your notes, if you look in your notes, there's another thing that's behind your notes, so it's in your bulletin as well. Uh, might show up on the notes, might show up on the screen, I'm not sure, because it, um, when I made this I didn't know how to do it where it could be scalable on the other end. But it just says this, it says the God-trained heart versus the untrained heart. And, and it basically just puts two together. One says the God-trained heart can be tender and responsive, the untrained heart can be hard-hearted, right? And you know, there's just that scripture, it says today if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart, right? And that when you read down this list, I want you to do me a favor. That would you just circle the word that best describes what your heart is. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:10]: Like in this season, just for yourself. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:14]: Just take just take it, a minute. Now you might feel like. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:16]: I'm not the most responsive, but I don't think I'm hard-hearted. But just which side? And consider where you've been in the past. Are you more responsive today, or are you less responsive than you were in the past? Because if our heart matters, if our heart matters, we need to know the direction that our heart has been moving. And if you find in for yourself that there have been some more negative heart conditions that you've circled or checked or relate to. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:12]: You know, we just need to be. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:13]: Reminded it doesn't happen with one bad decision, right? It doesn't happen from one night of excess. It grows when it's been left unattended, right? Because a heart that's trained, that's guarded, that's submitted, doesn't drift into hell accidentally. It's formed intentionally. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:37]: And this morning, or this evening, I want to invite us to some—. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:43]: A simple response. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:46]: And I don't know what you wrote. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:49]: In your thing, but this is for you. Nobody— you don't have to show it to anybody, right? This is just for you. But I want us to. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:00]: To bring. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:00]: Ourselves before God for a minute. Because it doesn't need to be dramatic, and I'm not meaning to be pressured in any way. I just want us to be honest, right? We just want to be honest before God. And the psalmist prayed, search me, O God, and know my heart. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:20]: And if you're willing, would you join me? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:21]: We're just going to bow our heads before him together. And we want to just ask him to search us. Would you quietly ask yourself just a few questions? God, where am I resisting you? Maybe you ask God that. God, is there anywhere— ask, Lord, would you search me? Because if there's any place I'm resisting you, Would you reveal that to me? Maybe you ask yourself and ask God, Lord, where has my heart grown numb, or where do I need softening again? Some of us know what area God's been touching, and maybe you've sensed it just by looking at some words, or you've been listening to the— as you listen to the message. But this isn't about pointing out all your wrongs or condemning. It's about an invitation. And if you recognize there's a place, a section where you say, God, I need my heart to be softened again. Lord, I've grown distant or, or hardened. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:23]: I've grown numb sometimes to the things of God. Lord, I want to surrender and invite you to inhabit my inner life again, not just my behavior. And if that's you this, this evening. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:41]: With her head bowed, eyes closed. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:44]: Invite you to just to respond to God in that way. Yeah, if that's you, just raise your hand or raise your heart to God. Open your heart. Say, God, that's me. Because this isn't for perfect people. It's for willing ones. Lord, we recognize our heart matters to you. And Father, I'm praying just as we go through this series that, that so often we get blinded because of the pace of life, because of the pressures of life, because we learn skills and abilities along the way. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:37]: And sometimes, Lord, we, we don't manage our heart as much as we use our skills. And so, Lord, I'm praying, Lord, would there just be a renewal in us Because I thank you, when the heart is overflowing, Lord, you said it influences everything we do. God, we want— that's what we want, God. We want that. Would you overflow our hearts again? We need you, Lord. We love you. We bless you. And thank you, just like you never left my son even when he knew I was right and did it his own way. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:28]: I think he actually grew through that. Lord, would you cause something to grow in us? Lead us. We pray these things in Jesus' mighty name. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:43]: Amen. Hey, you know, I just want to. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:47]: Add something for you guys that maybe. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:48]: Just— and in this series I'm thinking. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:50]: That just some kind of a practice, some kind of spiritual practice that we're. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:55]: Going to just ask that you guys do every week. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:57]: This week, you know, maybe you have your time of devotion, you have your time of prayer. Would you just simply ask God, just. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:06]: Be silent before him for 2 minutes. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:10]: Do all the asking you like, right? Do all the reading you want. Do all the study that you want. But just start with 2 minutes. Just be silent before him. And when you're silent, just ask, Lord, am I resisting you anywhere? Has my heart grown numb? Does it need softening again? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:32]: You know, like You've heard me say this, and I say it often, but. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:38]: The 21 days of prayer and fasting. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:42]: Even if nobody else did it, I. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:44]: Would still do it because I need it, you know. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:48]: And the reality is, you know, last. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:52]: Year, man, a bunch of us went through some hard seasons last year. Year. And some of those things didn't happen directly to me, but when the people that you love and you care about go through them, you— it affects you. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:13]: And you know, and I then I. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:15]: Had my own stuff every once in a while, a few things. And so this is how it looked during the Christmas and New Year time, man. I just didn't realize how tired I was. And that there were some areas of my heart that just became a little numb, you know. And that's when it's like I needed— Lord, I needed a refreshment on that. And this has been helpful for me. It's been helpful for me. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:44]: And so this is where we're headed. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:45]: For the next few weeks. And so when you look at that list, we're not doing this many weeks in this series. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:54]: That's a lot. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:56]: But we'll continue this series next week and really talking about love and relationships. And, and so what do we do, right? Because sometimes there's, there's this aspect of loneliness that people feel, and sometimes you can be married and lonely just as much as a single person would be, right? So we're going to talk about some some of these things. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:21]: And I want to talk about it. Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:23]: Before, like Valentine's Day, before all that stuff, just so that we have some chance to maybe think through some of that, right? Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:31]: Hey, God bless you guys. Thanks for joining us tonight.