Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:01]:
Hey, I did want to give a shout out to all the guys thinking about coming out to our men's breakfast. It's nice that we're going to get— I, I know that we're inviting not just the guys who normally come, but we're really trying to reach out to some of that new generation, some of the teens, the early 20s, trying to get some of those guys to come on out. Because there's nothing like that when men get together. And also, I think it's something that the enemy tries to prevent. So get us to silo, get us to just kind of stay isolated. And God wants— he says that when the brothers come together in unity, it's there he commands the blessing. Hey, you know, this evening, uh, how many of you guys were concerned that this rain was going to be like stormy tonight? Anybody? Right, because today, like, I mean, I saw like, uh, Kapolei was like storming, but I heard nothing like Windward, or maybe like in Wahiawa Central as well, you know. And maybe you had alternative plans.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:53]:
Maybe some of us said, hey, you know, I had a plan outside, but hey, we're going to movies, or we're going to stay home and cut something or whatever it is. But, you know, everybody has things that, uh, that come in their life like a rainstorm. Everybody has things in their life that they're worried about. Everybody has things where things don't go as planned. And, and sometimes we worry as a result, right? We're worried about, you know, our family or the kids, or, you know, maybe what's going to happen with my job, or, you know, worry about retirement, whatever those things are. And now, you know, we add on that, like, hey, what's going to happen? Is there another war going to happen in the Middle East, right? Uh, and So there's all kinds of things that anybody can worry about, from health to finances, to some of the things that are about our future. You know, for some of us, some of those things, those worries are inevitable. And as a pastor, I don't worry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:46]:
You know, I just occasionally think in terms of 6 different disasters that could happen in people's lives before I finish the message, you know, for tonight. And sometimes, you know, those things do come. And worry is the mind really, in some ways, trying to solve the problem of uncertainty. I don't know if you guys have kind of been in that place where, you know, you thought things are gonna go one way and they went the other way. And the mind doesn't really work great with uncertainty. And so anthropologists and psychologists say worry is kind of an evolutionary survival mechanism, that our brains are wired to detect danger. And, you know, so that's why there's that fight or flight thing. And that's why we, you know, what do we do when we can't do those things? Sometimes what we do is we worry.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:36]:
It gives us a sense of being productive without actually doing anything, right? And so it gives us an illusion of control. But there's a good aspect that happens when you think about the future and you play the scenarios out, right? Proverbs tells us that the plans of the diligent surely lead to abundance, right? Because sometimes we don't put it all in one field or one basket that we, we spread out sometimes the risk. Sometimes it's— Luke tells us that, hey, if you're going to build a project, you're going to start a project, there's a foresight in planning. So sometimes there's good parts about it, but worry is really this misapplied survival system that God built into us. You know, God builds in us a survival system, but in the world that so often It's— it— we're— there's so many mixed messages because, you know, sometimes we worry about the fact that we worry, right? And sometimes you're, you're brave. It's amazing how brave you can be at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and how crazy that it seems like the world is collapsing at 2 AM when you cannot go to bed. And so this evening, what we want to address is what is God's— what is God's word to give peace to the anxious heart. You know, in this series we've been talking about matters of the heart and how when the heart is trained, then it can move through various circumstances, and we can direct our heart in the right way.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:10]:
Because the untrained heart sometimes is foolish. The untrained heart is prone to error. The untrained heart is open to anxiousness, I believe, as well. And so we're going to read this together in Philippians 4:6, just just that snippet of that verse. Would you be kind enough, can we stand in reverence for God and reverence for his word? Probably familiar to many of us, but it says this. Let's read together. Ready? Begin. Do not be anxious about anything.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:43]:
Now, this short phrase, it's actually a command. It is found in the imperative in the Greek. And so some of us, when we hear this command, we get more anxious. Oh wait, I'm worrying anyway, right? And And so, but God instructs us not to be anxious because anxiousness and worry can be destructive. It can be corrosive. It can be paralyzing. And that word anxiety and worry in the Bible is the same word. There's one word that the Bible uses to describe both.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:15]:
It's that word merimnao, and it means to be divided. It means to be pulled apart. To be distracted by cares. And that's when we feel that overwhelming sense of sometimes fear or paralysis or anxiety, where we feel this weight, right? And God says, I don't want that to sidetrack you or to shipwreck you and to paralyze you. But biblically, anxiety is not just a fear, it's not just worry, It's really a divided heart, right? It says to be divided. And, and this aspect of a divided heart, when our heart gets divided between what it senses and what it feels and, and what it plays for the future versus that part that is rooted in God. And so in this midst that God says we, we want to train our hearts so it's not divided but it's unified. And it's unified in peace.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:16]:
So before you're seated this evening, would you turn to your neighbor, says, everybody worries but God has the solution. Right? Yeah, everybody worries, right? Everybody has a concern. Some of us, you were thinking about it on the way in. Some of us, you, you think about it when you lay your head on the pillow at night. Sometimes you, you think about it in those unguarded moments, and you You know, you're just kind of like— and sometimes that's why we busy ourselves. Sometimes that's why we play music. Sometimes that's why we have all these distractions, so we don't think about our worries. That's not God's way of getting— saying that we just distract ourselves.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:55]:
Jesus said it like this. See, he said that instead of turning off all the what-ifs that can happen in our life, that we need to turn our what-ifs into a who is in control. Right? And so he says to us in a very famous passage in Matthew chapter 6, and we're going to look at this, and he says this, he says in Matthew chapter 6, he's talking about this thing about worry, the things that we all can worry about. He says, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. Right? How many of us say we get, we get, you know, You get a little older, sometimes you go like, hey, what is this? I never noticed this before. You guys ever get that? It's like sometimes it's the hair. It's the hair. What the heck? Where did this hair come from? Right? Or what is this bump or whatever this thing? We get like that and you get concerned about your body and maybe we get concerned about our— what are we— how are we going to manage things? Right? And so he says there's a— there's some things that we can do, right? He says, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Now, now, food and clothing and health and all that, those are real things, but isn't life more than that? He's saying, right? This is Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:14]:
And then he says this in verse 26. He says, look. Let's say the word look, right? And we're going to say this other word, consider. Let's say consider. Okay, he's going to tell us, right? Yeah, those things are real. Those things are things that we all have to manage. Those are all things that we are all concerned about. But he says, look and consider.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:36]:
In verse 26, he says, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And are you not more valuable than they? Right? In other words, when you see the birds— and it's not that God doesn't care about the birds— he says But there's a system that he has, right? That he's a provider. And he says, you're more important than them, and they don't do any of that stuff and they're still fed. What's the implication? Isn't God going to provide for you, right? Doesn't God provide for his sons and his daughters, his children? And then he says, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider, right? We said consider. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And what he's talking about is, what is your focus? What are you looking at? What are you thinking about? What are you considering? Have you considered the fact that sometimes we're fearing that we're not going to have enough? Sometimes we're We're afraid that the deal is going to fall through.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:53]:
Sometimes we're afraid that this relationship is drifting apart. When we're in that situation, he says this: look out there. And you say, just look at nature. Just look at the way I have provided for the simplest of creation and the simplest of creatures. And see the fact that, you know what, that you see a beautiful flower. You guys ever see like a little flower growing out. Maybe it's a weed, whatever, but there's a nice little flower. It's just growing in the crack in the cement, right? Just growing in that little thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:27]:
And he's saying that, look, even in this aspect of rock and most, uh, unhospitable kind of an area, yet it cannot only bloom, it can be beautiful. And he's saying, consider this: God can bring the beauty out of the cracks in your life, right? God can bring the provision out of the places where it looks like impossible for things to take root. Worry is like rocking in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere, right? And we all know that, right? We all know that worry doesn't change anything, but it gives us something to do. Right? But instead he says you got to watch what you're looking at. You got to consider what you're considering. We got to focus on the right things. And he says, because in verse 30, but if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? And then he circles this— I mean, circle that part where he says, oh, you of little faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:37]:
He says our faith needs to grow. Our faith, not just saying our faith in faith, but our faith in him, right? Because he's saying this: therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Can we just say to ourselves, God knows all my needs. Right? He knows all your needs today, and he knows all the needs in your future, right? He knows all your needs to, to, to get the kids through school. He knows all your needs about how one day, you know, you have some dreams and some visions for the things of the future. Yeah, he knows all your needs. But he says this: the Gentiles seek after all these things He knows all your needs. But then he says this: but seek first the kingdom of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:34]:
First seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. You see, when we consider the wrong things, our thinking sometimes becomes catastrophic, right? Like, what happens if this doesn't happen? What happens if the strike lasts longer? What happens if, you know, the tariff goes It goes higher. What happens? All kinds of ways we can think. And if anxiety is the undivided— is the divided heart, how does Jesus teach us to heal and retrain a divided heart? He says this: it's your imagination. Your imagination. How many of you guys have a vivid imagination, right? Sometimes we imagine what our partners say. That's what I think sometimes, you know. But like, uh, you know, you said this, I didn't say that, right? But we imagine.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:26]:
No, but But he says that your imagination and your focus— because God wants your focus to be focused on the right thing so your imagination can be fueled by God's provision, by his kindness, by his faithfulness, by his sense of preparation in the way that he designs life, not simply for nature, for birds and and flowers and wildlife, but he says, "For you, for me," right? Because he's aware of the things of food, clothes, and he knows that we need those things, but he wants us to say, "Look, you need to feed your imagination with the things that will lead it in the right direction." And I love what C.S. Lewis said. He said so often, So often when we become doubtful, so often when we become worried, so often when we feel like it's like we can't make it, he says instead of doubting God, instead of doubting things will work out, he says this: you got to learn how to doubt your doubts. Right? Have you considered to doubt your doubts? You know, the vast majority— we know statistically, studies have shown that the vast majority of what you and I worry about never comes to pass. The vast majority, right? The, the fact that like the test is going to be bad, the fact that you're gonna, uh, you're gonna flunk out of school, or the fact that you might worry about that, that your job gets eliminated— vast majority never ever happens. But it doesn't stop us from rocking in that rocking chair and giving us something to do and sometimes feeling that. So what he says is you know, the things that you're focused on. Can you think in terms of not what's going to go wrong, but what's going to go right? Right? How is God going to do this? Now, uh, what happens over time when we start replaying in our mind how God has been faithful to me in the past, how God has answered, how God has moved in, in your life, how God has moved in other people's lives, right? That you recall those things, consider those things, then you don't become paralyzed by fear, but you have fuel for your faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:48]:
And that we need to be a people that practices fueling our faith. And when you do that, your reflex to trust just becomes stronger, right? Instead of automatically doubting— because some of us automatically doubt, right? Some of us, when we get up in the morning, we're an atheist. Right? You know, like in the morning, I can't even tell if God exists, right? I don't know, I feel horrible. I don't want to feel like I want to go to work or whatever it is you feel like that. But as you move, right? As you move after your first cup of coffee, some of us, then the world starts shifting, right? No, I don't know, sure. But you know, those things that we get in that place, but you can't help some of us, you're automatically negative, right? And some of us were automatically positive. I mean, to be honest, that's just a personality kind of a trait. But you can fuel your faith by what you focus on, by what you imagine, by what you understand and replay in your mind about God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:49]:
Because over time, if you think worrisome and doomsday thoughts, you know what happens? Those thoughts and those patterns become ingrained and stronger. You literally build a neural pathway by those negative those thoughts that— after— in the beginning, maybe it happened when certain situations happened, and that's what it reminded you. But if you keep thinking those thoughts, it doesn't take that situation anymore. All you got to do is just— when you're in your unguarded moment, your mind just drifts in that direction. And so what do we do in the moments that we are thoughtful? We need to focus them on God's faithfulness. We need to focus on God's provision. We need to focus on the way God has pulled through in your life, the way God has answered his people in his word. And so that over time, you know what we begin to do? We begin to create on a, on a different level, not just in our spirit but even in your brain, new pathways for you to think No, God's going to be faithful.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:00]:
He all— he has been in the past, he's going to be in the future, because God, that's his character, that's who he is, right? It's not the fact that, you know, um, everything always happens because that's just the way life is. No, it's because who's in control. The— your thoughts tell you life is out of control. Our heart, when focused on God, tells us God's always in control. And so he says, right, stop worrying by looking at the birds of the field. Consider the lily. Consider how God provides. Consider the fact that he, um, you know, is in the midst of all those things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:44]:
Seek first God. Seek first his kingdom. And then he says this, because why Because anxiety in many ways is about you controlling the future, right? And that's why we struggle, because we cannot. How can you control the future? You can't control the future, right? And so what happens then? We start worrying about it. We want to control the future. We hedge our bets on this. We plan on this thing. There's some things that are good for that, right? But misapplied, untrained, we start drifting into anxiety, worry, fear, paralysis, right? Obsession.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:27]:
And so the biblical lens, faith says this: God our Father holds our future. God our Father is walking us to our future. Worry is the mind trying to be in control. It's God pushing God out. Like, if God doesn't act, then I got to take care of it. God says this: I'll take care of it, right? So peace becomes the confidence that even when you're not in control, God's in control. Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor, says, you know, when you're not in control, God is in control, right? Now it's important to understand not all worry or anxiety is sin, right? This is not all sin. Jesus, when he was in the garden, he had much distress, right? He was convulsing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:25]:
It's saying it's like with many tears and blood and sweat that he poured out, though he poured out his heart to who? To his Father, right? And Paul speaks about his worries and anxieties about the churches, right? And so again, you know, if you're reading this, sometimes I'm reading from the ESV, uh, but a lot of you, it says a— you know, it uses the word worry. It's the same word, right? It's the same word. We said worry and anxiety in the Bible is the same word. And so, but there is paralyzing And God doesn't want you to have paralyzing fear. God doesn't want you and I to be controlled, dominated by it, and obsessing about it, right? So that's what Jesus said. Remember who's your Father. Remember what he's like. Remember how he's provided.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:19]:
Remember who he's provided for. If he can provide for the least of these, then the argument goes, it's the lesser to the greater. If he can do this for this thing, this bird, this plant, then how much more will he do for his sons and his daughters, right? And then he goes this— the Apostle Paul says, the Apostle Paul says this, but you got to bring your concerns and your worries to God, right? And so it's, it's important that we, we understand who our Father is, but he says What do we do with that, right? In Philippians 4:5-7, he says it like this. Can we read that together, that first phrase? The Lord is at hand. What does that mean? God is near. God's with you. That he's present in your circumstances. Therefore, we could say— therefore, we could say— it doesn't have a therefore there.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:20]:
But we could say, "Therefore, do not be anxious about anything." Why? Because God is present. He hasn't left. He's not leaving, right? "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding," will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, right? Because he's controlling anxiety and control. You might not have control, right? And certain— and, and peace doesn't come from, from knowing how everything's going to work out. Sometimes some of us, we, we want information, we want knowledge, we want to know who's going to do what, when it's going to happen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:09]:
And, and you can have all the information in the world, but does that give you peace? No, it doesn't, right? Often it doesn't, because peace doesn't come from certainty, it comes from trust. Peace comes from a relational connection. So what is he saying? The Lord is at hand, he's close. But there's maybe the 4 Rs that today, that in Paul, he's saying these things. If you want to, you want to experience God's peace, how do you train the anxious heart? You got to first realize that sometimes you are anxious. Sometimes we got to realize that we're worried. Sometimes you got this low-grade fear. You got this, just this script that's playing in the back of your mind that, you know, you're going about your day, you're doing your job, but you're thinking about something, right? You're thinking about whatever, that relationship.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:01]:
You're thinking about this financial bill that you got. You're thinking about something that you're concerned about, right? And so He says, realize that when you have those things, that you realize that you're anxious, he's saying be anxious for nothing. So instead of letting your mind just keep playing that in the endless loop in the background, that we bring it before God. But when we don't realize it, we'll keep doing it, right? What do you think about when you put your head to the pillow? If you're worried, if you're fearful, if you get anxious, if it keeps you up at night, he's saying this: you got to realize that's our anxiety, right? And so the psalmist prayed, Lord, search me, O God, and know my heart. Sometimes we don't know our heart. But we feel the absence of his peace. If you feel the absence of his peace, then it's probably because you're anxious. And so we need to just realize that— first we admit, right? We realize and admit that we have worry, that we have fears, that we have, you know, anxiety about certain things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:22]:
But then what do we do with that? —then reach out to the Lord in prayer. What do we do? He says, yeah, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything— let's say everything, right? In everything, in every situation that you're concerned about, in every fear that you have, in every doubt that you have, right? In every paralysis thing that you feel where you cannot take that step forward, he says in everything by prayer and supplication. What is supplication? Supplication is really, uh, it sometimes it's, it's kind of almost in some sense it's pleading exceedingly. It's, it's some places it's kind of like when you bow down and beg before a lord, and it's used like that. He says, but what it is is an expression of humility and a submission to God, right? It's saying, God, I need you in this situation. God, I need you in my life, right? It carries the idea of spreading ourselves humbly before God because it says this in 1 Chronicles 7:14: If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray Prayer is humbling for many of us, right? Because it's acknowledging I don't have control over it. I am not certain. It doesn't mean that you don't know how to do your job.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:52]:
It doesn't mean that you've been, you know, horrible in this relationship unnecessarily. It's just saying that, you know what, you can't control another person. You can't control the weather. You can't control all the outcomes. So that's why we ask God. Bring it before him. Ask. Ask about these things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:11]:
And then he goes on, let your request be made known to God. And then he says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We all want peace, right? We all want peace. You know, instead, sometimes we find ourselves going to pieces, right? But, but we all want peace. But he says, how do you do it? He says, with thanksgiving. Be grateful for who God is. Be grateful for what he's done. Believe for what he will do, right? Even when you don't know what needs to be done, based on who he is, God, would you lead in this case? At times, give thanks, he says, in all things, right? And it doesn't make sense for us to say You know, God, thank you for hardship, right? God, thank you that I got fired from my job.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:04]:
God, thank you for— it's not saying be thankful for these things, right? But it says that when we can say, God, I'm thankful despite something, God, I'm thankful despite cancer, I'm thankful despite the fact that, you know, I don't know the answer, because you're my strength, because you're my hope. Sometimes in those places when I have been most distraught and I have experienced the most peace is when I have been thankful. When I am totally out of control and big things are on the, uh, at stake— my son's life was at stake, that's why I was out That's why I wasn't so anxious. We were thinking, is he going having convulsions? Is something serious going to happen? And we started to thank God, not for that, but in the midst of that, that God, you're faithful, that God, that you're in control, that God, that you love him more than we love him. When we started to say those things, express those things to God, It's when I— we felt the most peace and changed the atmosphere, right? When it was my own health, when the doctor said the words positive cancer, and then all of a sudden he's still talking, but it's kind of like You know, like, you're not really— well, that's not— that, that was— came out of the blue. That, that's a different curve that I didn't see coming. But when I sat in that car and I said, God, you were good to me before, and I know that you're still good today. It's a peace that came at that point, and it didn't make sense to me, but it's the peace came from his presence.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:22]:
And when we're grateful, when we're thankful, not necessarily for what is happening but for who he is in the middle of what is happening, it allows his presence to come. And what do we do when that happens? You rest in his peace. And God guards then the things around your mind, right? Remember David's meditation was, he leads us beside still waters and he makes us lie down and rest in green pastures. He says, even when I'm walking through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, he says. You cannot always help the circumstances, but you can experience his presence despite the circumstances. Someone said the main message of the Bible is he's God and I'm not, right? And that's the— of anything that I know, I know those two things are true. I'm not God right? And he is. And, and when we're in that place that we understand God's— I don't know, I don't— sometimes I don't understand everything about God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:38]:
I don't know how he does all the things that he does or keeps track of all the things that he keeps track of, or how he's going to answer something or how he's going to work it out. I just know that he's always been good and he's always been faithful. And then all of a sudden, instead of just being anxious about it, instead of, you know, trying to figure and control all the things, I've experienced peace. If I can experience peace in all those things, it's not because I'm special, it's because he's special, because he's faithful. And he says this— I love this phrase— he says, 'We'll guard your hearts and minds.' Let's say, 'Guard our hearts and minds.' That phrase literally means he places a garrison, he places an army, he places soldiers around us, encamps around us, around your heart, around your emotions, around your feelings, around your around your mind, around your thoughts, and the things that would be racing through your thoughts. Sometimes that's the crazy part, right? You guys ever been in that place? The racing thoughts, uncontrolled, unfiltered, right? I don't know if you've ever been in a place where you had to call the police for something. If you have to call the police, it's usually not a good thing, right? And, and until that blue light shows up— because you got something happened at the road, right? Because somebody broke in, because something horrible happened— when you see the blue light, what does that tell you? Cavalry arrived, right? And, and so what he's saying is, is that when it guards your heart and your mind, he says you can rest in him. Because the cavalry is already here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:44]:
How do we rest? It's in Christ Jesus. Jesus, when he was on the cross, says, 'It's finished. I'm all you need, right? You can stand whole. You can stand forgiven. You can stand accepted. You can stand pure before me, not because you are pure, but because of my work.' You're pure. You know, one of the kind of more memorable times I remember experiencing this, and kind of early on in my Christian experience and my walking with Jesus, I was on staff with Campus Crusade, and we would take students on mission trips. And sometimes they would be overseas, and been to Japan, you know, a number of times and taking teams.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:31]:
But This time we were stateside and we were reaching out to students at UCLA. And there would be about 50 students and staff would come and we'd stay in a frat house that we would rent out for the thing. And I, and I was, it was like probably like the second mission trip I'd done. And when you do a stateside thing, you have these jobs that you do that you don't have to do when you're overseas normally, because we're just staying in a homestay or staying in some kind of a thing, and we just really focused on reaching out and talking to people. But we would have to kind of create, you know, and organize rooms and all the stuff. And this house was big. It was like 20 rooms, some odd rooms. It could fit like 80 people.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:25]:
And some genius thought I should be in charge of the house, right? I'm not administratively wired that way. I can do it at times, but some genius put me in charge. And so when I was there, I had to make— look at the rooms and the list and make sure everything's clean. And we're coming in— this is before cell phone too, by the way. So coming into a city I don't live in, I gotta find a place. Where are we gonna find beds for everybody? Where are we gonna find bedding for everybody? Where are we gonna find, you know, all this kind of stuff, right? And then like, we gotta organize the locks and all stuff, and there's all these locks all over the place. And I said, okay, where's the, where's the office where you— there's, oh, you know, all these things on the hook? There's no office. There was a box with like 100 keys, all unmarked, all thrown in the box.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:18]:
I was looking at this thing and I was like, bro, I don't know where we're gonna rent the beds. I don't know where we got— I got like 4 days, I gotta organize. And, and I'm also responsible for all the safety. I go under the house, I'm looking at that, I see all this. I'm not an electrician, but sure, I can see, brother, this thing is dangerous. And I was like, but the house can catch on fire. This security is a mess. I don't know where all this stuff is.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:49]:
And, and I was trying to figure it all out on my own, you know, calling, doing all these things. And, and I was overwhelmed. My thoughts started to spin, and I started thinking like, this is going to be the first time where a house is going to catch on fire, you know, like students are going to die because of— I started thinking about those things, or, you know, that the house is going to be You know, not secure because of these things. And I literally went to a park and my head was spinning. And it— I never felt like I was gonna ever have a breakdown in my life, but that's the closest. I just felt so overwhelmed. The devil was working overtime on me. And I remember just saying, you know, Lord, I'm so overwhelmed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:39]:
This is not what I normally do. I don't know how to do all this. I'm in a town I don't know, and I don't know how we're gonna make it, and I don't even have a car. I gotta borrow somebody's car. How are we gonna make this work? But I know you brought me here. I just put it in your hands because I can't fix it. And you know, like, in a period of like 10 minutes, I felt peace. And if you ask me, how is it going to work? I don't know.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:22]:
It all worked together. House didn't burn down. Nobody, you know, there were some challenges, but that's a different message. But, um, I experienced this feast first, one of the first times. Since then, way bigger things than that. Sometimes it's your kid's health, right? Sometimes it's an illness like a parent, right? Sometimes there's been betrayals. Sometimes there's been things where, you know, at the height of something and all of a sudden you didn't realize somebody was lying to you the whole time, right? There's been things that way bigger than this, but the good news is it's the same God who is always faithful, who is always kind, who always led, who always provided. Maybe not in a way that I expected But when I had peace, I could go through it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:27]:
And I wasn't biting everybody's head off. And I wasn't running myself in circles because he was guarding my heart and giving me his peace. You know, God wants to do the same for you, right? He wants to do the same because he's the same God. You know that throughout this series we've been saying sometimes we're going to have these exercises, how to train our heart. So here's two exercises just on the bottom of your notes. It says sometimes you just got to name the weight. What am I most afraid might happen? And if that happened, what do I believe that would say about me? Right? Where am I trying to control instead of trusting? Because you can't— sometimes you can't control those things. You can't control how somebody's going to respond.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:26]:
You can't control what the environment is going to do. You can't control it. But name the weight. The second thing is what if. So what if it does happen? What if you do lose a job? Underneath you write, even if that happens, God will— what? God will still be my provider. Even if the report comes back Oh, it's not what you wanted. God's still my healer. He's still my shepherd.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:17]:
He's still my hope. He's still my helper. Even if— sometimes it's not that we escape the fire, Sometimes it's that we go through the fire. Daniel and his three friends, he said this: we're not— we don't have to bow to you because we bow to God. And you might throw us in our fire, and our God can rescue us from the fiery flames. But the most powerful Part of their response was, "But even if he does not, we will not bow." Because God's the same. What if? I've been through some of those what-ifs, and the worst thing happened, and I thought I was gonna die, but I didn't. I learned.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:23]:
I learned how faithful he was. I learned how good he was. Now, some of us tonight, we came in carrying something, and it's heavy. Maybe not physically, maybe it's emotionally, maybe it's mentally, maybe it's spiritually heavy, right? It's about, it's about your future. It's, it's about your family's future, right? Maybe it's about a health thing. Maybe it's about something that you've been praying for and you haven't got the answer that you want, right? Maybe it's the salvation. The most heavy thing that sometimes I've prayed for is the salvation of a, of a loved one, of a family member, right? We think, Lord, if I— if you do If I do what you're calling me to do, who's going to witness to them? Who's going to lead them to Christ? And I've been in that situation where God says, you just follow me, I'll lead them. And you know what? He's been faithful.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:31]:
Because the truth is, you and I, we often carry things we were never designed to carry. That weight, that responsibility to be in control, to solve all those problems, you're not designed to control that. Can we say, God, you're my Father, you're God, I'm not. I'm gonna place these things in your hands. I'm gonna surrender. I'm gonna trust about these things. Because he's saying, look at the birds, consider the flowers in the field. Are you seeking first my kingdom and seeking me? Paul didn't say control your future, just bring it all before God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:20]:
We're going to have a chance to do that. Can we bow our heads? Can we pray for a minute? If something that I talked about that's been running through your mind in that endless loop, and that's why you play music all the time, or you listen to a podcast, or you distract yourself so you don't think about it. Would you just bring it before God today? Would you say, God, you're my God, you're in control, I give you control. Because I can't control it. And God, would you— as I surrender it to you, I trust you, Lord. Thank him. Would you thank him? He says, Lord, even if things don't go the way that I would like, you're still going to be good, and you're going to be good to me, even if things move from this job disappears, thank you that you're still a provider and there's something else that you're going to have for me, Lord. Even if— and I— because I'm thankful for who you are.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:38]:
I'm not going to walk alone, and I'm not going to be alone. Would you place those things before him? Things you were never meant to carry alone. And I don't know if this is a word for someone, but just when I started thinking about this message, I, I started to think there's some of us that anxiety comes like a shadow that haunts you, that, that there's these things. It's like literally there can also be an anxious spirit And that you can feel it when it comes. If that's you, and sometimes we've made a peace with that, like we just say, I can't fight it, so I'll just accept it. God doesn't want you to accept it. That peace is that, that fear, that anxiety, that's not from God. So we need to renounce it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:47]:
If you've had that, you can tell when that comes, and you change. Would you just renounce it? Would you say, Lord, I, I'm sorry that I, I made an agreement with this spirit. I've let it into my life, but I don't want it any longer. I repent. And God, I want to put you in control of that part of my life. I want to put you in control of my whole life. God, would you protect me? Would you cover me? Would you give me your presence that brings peace? And God, would you guard my heart and guard my mind and guard my soul Lord, would you guard my life because you're King, because you're mighty. And we just say in the name of Jesus, every spirit of anxiety, every spirit of fear, leave God's children alone.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:50]:
Leave and go to the feet of Jesus. And Father, would your peace flow like the gentle rain, Lord, that that nourishes a dry and hardened soil, like you can nurture a dry and hardened heart. God, would your Spirit fall on your people? Because we're calling out to you, Lord. We're not just going to follow our heart, we're going to train our heart focused on you. And the worship team, They're going to sing a song over you. Declare over you that Jesus is enough. Declare over you that he's your provider, that he's your healer, that he's your shepherd. And sometimes you want to sing maybe that with your own lips.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:54]:
Then you stand, you sing, and you declare, Lord, I'm declaring Jesus, you're enough for me. Jesus, you're my shepherd. Jesus, you're gonna lead me and you're gonna Free me. Listen, sing.