Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
Hey, you know, we're bringing a new series today. We're. And maybe in some sense a continuation. We did a series in the fall actually, called Better Together. And when I'm thinking about the things that lie ahead of us, it's that same principle is that whatever it is that you're facing, whatever it is that's going on in your life, whatever it is that as a people of God that we are facing collectively, we're always better together. And, you know, our culture constantly says to us that, live your best life now. You ever heard that? Right? Live your best life now. Right? Be your best self now.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:35]:
Right? You know, maximize your potential. You're amazing. We hear culture saying these things, and there's some truth in that, right? There's some truth in that. But the Bible actually says something even more powerful. He says it like this in Psalm 139, 14. Can we stand and we'll read this out loud as we declare God's word to be true. To be true over you, to be true over us. To just to be true.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:04]:
Let's read what it says. Ready? Begin. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, what he's saying is that it's not just that you're amazing, it's that God made you. God designed you. God intentionally did some things that to create you as you are and create you as you will be. But the Bible says, differs from culture, is that you are not just amazing for you, but that you are amazing because God wants to bless through you, right? And so that we have a purpose and a plan for the fact that we have been given gifts, that we have potential, that we have, we live our best life. It's not simply for ourselves.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:54]:
If you are living your life simply for yourself, you are living too small a life. It is not what God designed you for. It is not what God designed people for, that we were designed fearfully, wonderfully, amazingly, because he has a great purpose and a plan. So do me a favor before you're seated, just say that you were made for more, right? You're made for more. Because when God saved you. When God saved me, he didn't just save us from something, he saved us for something, Right? He didn't just rescue us from hell. He said, I have good works and plans that I want you to walk in. And so this evening when we're looking together, is that you're gifted for a purpose.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:50]:
And I wanted to surface a few things tonight. And it's a different kind of series that we're going to be doing. We have a little different kind of service tonight. We're going to have a chance to move around and talk and meet some folks at the end. But be reminded that this evening, if you're unaware, if you're unaware that you are gifted for community, for the community, that everyone has a gift, has a talent, has a skill, right? Has an ability of some kind, and it's given by God. It's not just pastors, it's not just leaders, guys who, you know, have led organizations. It's not just extroverts, it's not just personality. But if you belong to Jesus, that you have been gifted by God, every believer is gifted by God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:41]:
And so do me a favor, just turn to your neighbor, says, you've been gifted by God. Look at your neighbor say, tell them that you've been gifted from God. You may not know what your gift is. You may not be aware. Some of you may be. Some of you are mistaken about what the gift that you have, it doesn't matter, but God has gifted you. And it says it like this in First Corinthians 12, 4, 7. Now I'm going to just read this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:06]:
It says there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. How many? What kind of gifts? Different kinds, Right? Different kinds. And there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there's different. There's different expressions that will take place. There's different things that people will do, and there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is what, the same God. Let's say same God. It's the same God at work. And then we're going to read this last line together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:35]:
Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. If you Notice in verse 7, the manifestation is given. It says, you know, when we. For the common good, that it. It says, when it says manifestation, you might be able to guess what manifestation is from the English, right? To make known. It's the same in the Greek. It means to make known, to reveal, to make plain, to bring to light, to disclose. In other words, to you make the invisible visible.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:06]:
You make the unseen seen. You make the thing that seems intangible, tangible. When you operate in a gifting, when we operate to bring God glory, the gathering of the church for worship isn't just about people getting together to practice certain traditions, to just practice our faith, right? It entails the presence activity of God himself. You know, when we gather together and then when you came in you were greeted by someone. Anybody greeted by somebody, right? That maybe you saw. Like we see all our friends already who prepared food and we have a meal after the gathering, right? Somebody did that, right? Somebody had to wash the tablecloths and arrange the room. Somebody had to worship team had to practice songs and figure it out. And transitions, right? All these different ways, right? There's somebody that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:02]:
There's people who. Who fold bulletins and make inserts and cut the stuff and put the notes in, right? That you never even see them. They're upstairs, right? It's. It's different ways, different things that get done, but it's all the manifestation, the revelation of the presence of God. The reality is that whenever the people of God gather, it says that Jesus is here, the spirit is here, the Father is here. But what your gift does, right? Your gift reveals Jesus in community. And I'm saying this because I think in some ways that when people get gifts, they think it's so easy to think, I want to maximize my gift. I want to be the best.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:52]:
I want to live the best thing. I want to be. Be used the best in different ways that we might think. But the reality is that your gift reveals Jesus in the midst of people, right? It's not meant to be used as an individual. Individuals use them, but they're used for community. And he says it like this. In Matthew 18, Jesus said this. In Matthew 18:20, he says, what for where two or three are gathered in my name, what there I am among them, right? I manifest in some ways.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:28]:
And one of the ways Jesus is present in the people of God is that when people gather because the Spirit has moved them, and you use your ability, your talent, your heart, that you're in the midst of that, that Jesus is manifested, revealed. And it says that we said for the common good, let's say common good. What does common good mean? A common good doesn't mean that. So it's just for one other person or for myself. It means it's for the community. It's for the local body. It's for the physical expression of Jesus. How many of us ever wish that you could see Jesus in person, in the flesh and blood, right? We all have wished that, right? And you know what the thing is? It says that the scripture says that people are made in the image of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:25]:
That word, image of God, that image. It's actually the word Salem, which is where sometimes can be used as the word idol. It's the physical representation of the invisible God. And so that when you see People that in some ways, originally, because, you know, today can get messed up, right? The image of God, it's never erased, but it can be covered over, right? That when you look at somebody, look at somebody, you're seeing somebody who's a physical representation of. Of God. And when sin entered the world and different things happened, it needed to be redeemed. So Jesus went to the cross, he paid for it, and then what did he do? Jesus, who is the second Adam, the more perfect man, he created what they called his body, the church. And so when you see a church, any church, it is the representation of Jesus on earth, right? Literally in Iran, the physical representation of Jesus on Ur Nanmor, the physical representation of Jesus on earth.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:51]:
In Waipahu, the physical representation of Jesus on earth. And so what happens, he says in First Corinthians 14:26, he says that what then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or interpretation. And let all things that say, all things, whatever it is that we do, be done for building up, right? Building up what? Building up one another, Building up the body, building up the church. Because the gifts that you've been given, they are given by grace, but you're meant to be used to build up his people, to build up the church. And I say that because sometimes I have seen people been given a gifting, and often in the beginning, use it in a church setting. Some of the most famous singers that are out there, they use their gifts in the beginning. You know where they used it in church? Maybe some names that might seem familiar, like Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, you guys, did you guys know that, that they were all church singers? Like Katy Perry's mom is a pastor, Foursquare pastor, to be honest. Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:20]:
Whitney Houston's mom is like gospel singer for forever, right? But the thing is that they were given a gift. But guess what? They took the gift that was meant for the community and they used it for themselves. And it's not just pop icons, it's not just entertainers. It's people with leadership skills, business skills, right? Teaching skills, creativity skills, and they use it for themselves. But we have to be reminded, is it wrong to somehow make a living out of that? No, it's not wrong to do that. But you got to remember, gifts are given as a stewardship. In other words, he says this, he says in 1st Peter 4:10, as each has received a gift, use it to what, serve one another, right? When it's one another, it's, to be honest, it's like we use it to serve the world. But he's saying it starts in the church, it starts in the community to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:30]:
The principle is, because to whom much is given, much more is required. They're not given for my own indulgence, for my own notoriety. They're given because God is saying that one day he's going to ask us what we did with what he gave us, right? And I think the first thing he's going to ask us is, what did you do with my son? Right? Did you respond? Did you surrender? Did you, did you, did you acknowledge and worship and follow him? What did you do with my son? But I think the second question he's going to ask is, what did I do with what I gave you? What did you do with what I gave you? Because it was given, he says, so it is with you. You are eager, since you are eager for gifts of the spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. Now, you know there's a lot of talk, right, that we've been looking at is that we're saying gifted. But you know, something that is more important than gifting is heart. It's love. Because if you look at First Corinthians and most of this passage, passages I've been talking about, and we'll read a lot of it come from 1st Corinthians 12 and 14, talks about all the different gifts, and we're not getting into all the specific of the gifts.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:55]:
We've talked about that in the past. We've given gift tests, things in the past and opportunities to try and assess. But in the beginning, it's talking about gifts in chapter 12, it talks about gift in chapter 14. But what happens in chapter 13, we talked about it in our heart series is the most important thing the more excellent way. It's not just using your gifts, but it's using with the right heart, right? And love is the most excellent way. And so even though we're talking about gifted, gifted for a purpose. Even if you don't know if you have the right heart, if your heart is to serve God, if your heart is to love people, if your heart is to expand his kingdom and you're willing to love, you're willing to serve, you're willing to make a difference, I think it's more important than your gift because there's some people that have the greatest gift but will never use it because they don't have the heart for it. And so in our church, Though how we try to manifest this aspect of heart and gifting is really in the context of teams, right? And so we have a term here.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:15]:
We call all the folks that make church happen, whether on a Saturday night or Sunday or midweek or life groups or like outreaches and things that go up to, you know, you challenge or for food pantry. It's never an individual by themselves. It always happens in a team, right? And so we call our. That base are our dream team, right? And people who are the backbone of the church, who are the hands and feet of Jesus. And why do we do that? Because we think teams reflect God's purposes and his plans. And I'm also reminded that teams multiply what we can do, right? Because. And this is why we don't do ministry alone. And it says it like this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:02]:
In Ecclesiastes 4, you know that two are better than one, right? And so that's where you get this series that we started was that it's we're better together because they have what a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. And also if two lie down together, they'll keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. And a quarter of three strands is not quickly broken. Teams multiply. What we can do sometimes in effectiveness, right? He says you get a good return, right? You get a good return for your service. And what happens is that when we partner together, our effectiveness is multiplied.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:53]:
It says it like this. The principle of synergy we see really reflected in Deuteronomy 32, 30. Let's read what it says. Shall we read. Let's read together. How could one man chase a thousand or two put ten thousand to flight unless their rock had sold him, Unless the Lord had given them up. This is a principle of synergy because it says if one can chase a thousand, it doesn't say two can chase 2,000. Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:23]:
That, that would be. That would make sense. It doesn't say that. What does that say? 2 can chase 10,000. In other words, the principle of synergy, that the impact of a collective is greater than the sum of its parts. You guys ever try to move something, furniture by yourself or a heavy box? You know, like if you had a box or some kind of furniture and you couldn't lift it by yourself, even if you could, let's say, lift a 100 pound box or whatever the thing. When you get two people, you don't get the capacity to lift 200. It usually goes well above 200.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:06]:
Right. Now, there may be some limitations on your grip strength and all that kind of stuff, but, yeah, that's the way it works, right? Because there's power in community. We have any paddlers in here tonight? Any canoe paddlers? I know. We always have, you know, I know there's a. Yeah. Okay. Wahine paddlers. Paddlers, too, right? So you guys know how paddlers work? There's different.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:36]:
All different kind, right. There are single paddler canoes that are out there, but probably the most prevalent. And anytime that has some kind of regatta is what. Yeah, it's a crew, Right. It's going to be, you know, often like six. I mean, there's smaller ones, but six is probably the most standard one. And he says that when you paddle together, right. You can go faster, farther and longer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:04]:
Right. How many of us feel like by themselves, you could just jump in a canoe and paddle to Molokai? Yeah. I mean, like, if you're Superman, maybe you can. I don't know. But, like. But in a team, it's a regular occurrence, right? In a team, it's a regular occurrence. And I bring that up because in the old days when churches used to get planted, and this is not just in our movement, but this is just kind of the way that it was in the old days, they would try to find a person that they thought was called, right. They'd look for a person they thought maybe was, we might use the term anointed, that was gifted or whatever it is, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:40]:
And they would train and invest in that one person. Right? And you know what that one person would do? Figuratively jump in their canoe and paddle off into the sunset, maybe with their spouse, right. And go plant a church. And you know what? Like, in our movement, what we found was that like 30% that would go out would survive in the long term. And in other words, about 70% fail rate of people kind of establishing anything of any substance. And so the idea became quite different by the time I came along to plant the church. It was more about the team, right. It was about not the pastor and the pastor's wife together alone, Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:34]:
I mean, I hope the pastor and the pastor's wife are together, but not just us together, but that we would have other people. And so we did. And so we started in a house in Eva, where we started first a midweek service at Glenn for Amizos house in Eva, and a bunch of people that still with the church met in that house. And we prayed together, we covenanted together, we invested together. And that became a midweek that started at the child and family service that were 12 people, became over 30 people, became 40 people when we had the midweek service, came to 200 people. Then we told them, we're going to start a church. We're going to be an independent church. We're going to start a freestanding church in our area in the Kapolei area.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:34]:
And so the 200 went to 40 people. And so we started, though, with a team. And you know what? 26 years later, 27, actually. 26. 27 is right about now. When we started a midweek, we're still going. Why? Because it was never based upon one person, one couple. It was around the team.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:01]:
Because teams multiply our effectiveness and they extend our capacities and our shelf life. Right. Sometimes the people who have gone, it's not that they went when they paddled out to get alone. It's not that they weren't effective. They just couldn't maintain it because it was just based on them. And so when I was living in the mainland, I remember seeing a flock of geese. I didn't know what it was, actually. I was driving down the freeway and I saw this thing in the sky look like a silver ribbon that was moving in the sunlight.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:39]:
And I couldn't tell, what is that? Is that a ufo? No, I didn't know what it was, but. And it got closer, I could tell it was a flock of geese. And the way the sun hit, you know, just was really looked like a silver ribbon. And then it, as I saw it, you know how they fly in that telltale V kind of a shape. And what I didn't understand at that point is that nature has a way, right? Nature has a way. It's an imprint, I believe, from God that says it's not just teams work with people. Teams work. They just work, even with animals.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:16]:
And because what happens is that you might be aware is that. That when they fly together, they don't. You never see them flying alone unless something happened and one got sick or got blown off or whatever it is. They're always flying in a group. But that lead bird works actually 10 to 30% harder than everybody else. Why? Because he's breaking. He's breaking the wind, right? He's creating. He's aiding the flow in which people can follow in his wake.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:50]:
And so every bird that flies in the wake of that first bird and then the second bird, they fly, they work 20, 10 to 30% less than the front bird. That's what allows them to go farther. But can that first bird stay there forever? No, he cannot. He's working harder. So what does he do? After a period of time, he just shifts. And then somebody else goes to the front, right? And that's what allows them to fly thousands of miles across oceans, right? That's how we have the nene over here that cannot fly. The descendant of all those Canadian geese that flew crazy from the mainland to hear thousands of miles, because they did it as a team. And that sense of rotation is the same we want to have in our teams.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:56]:
And it doesn't just you know, make us more effective. It doesn't just extend our capacities. It doesn't just do that, but it multiplies our joys, you know, Like, I don't know how many mission trips I've been on at this point, whether to Myanmar, Indonesia or China or Japan or Fiji or, you know, different places. But the thing is that we work hard. But you know what? We always laugh hard, too, right? Sometimes we're teasing each other, right? Sometimes we're teasing about the language mistakes we make. Sometimes we just say, like, you'd be surprised by different things that can happen, but we laugh hard, right? So we're going to work hard. We already did. We already have.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:41]:
But. And there's going to be some things that are going to be hard and everybody got to bear down. But. But you laugh hard, you just. You just find things that happen. It's like I almost never let down, lived down this thing. When we were on a mission trip and I forgot my iPad in the hotel in Taipei, we were at the airport and I had all my messages on this iPad. And so we're there, and I had to say.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:13]:
I told him, you know, I gotta go back to the hotel, and we're gonna fly out from there to Myanmar. And so I just told the taxi driver, you know what, can you. I told the lady who could speak Chinese that she was kind of like at the stand. I told her like, you know, you gotta. Can you tell them to hurry up because I gotta make this flight. You gotta go all the way there? It's like half an hour. I gotta come back, and I gotta be back within an hour because the flight is, you know, going on. And she's, okay, so she's telling him in Chinese.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:44]:
And I just sat in the back. And then as soon as we pulled out of the airport, we're riding in this Camry. And it was like. It's like, literally, I'm leaning in the back, and I just look at the speedometer going like this. And literally, he's driving like a hundred miles an hour, like, passing people, and it's like white knuckling it right all the way. And it's like I'm trying to tell him what I know in Chinese, which is very little, but, like, he just nod and just get like. It's like. It's crazy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:23]:
By the time we came back, I was exhausted. Right. There's a certain part of my body went like this, you know, I don't know if you guys know what that is, but the thing is, it was like, when we. We got back, like, they say, you made it. Whatever. I told the story. Everybody's rolling, right? We just have so much fun. And it's like.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:44]:
But it's like, we get good stories, but it's. You work hard, but there's. There's things that happen that just, like, you'll never forget. And so the thing happens is, I think that's just the way life works. Life works when a team. That's where the ministry works, when we do it as a team. And sometimes, you know, you could. You don't have to be around forever to jump in on that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:07]:
And so I just wanted a lot of us here that you've been here for a while, and some of us. Maybe you're here more recently, but. But, you know, I have a friend that I want to bring up and just ask him, because he's jumped on the team and he hasn't been around that long. Would you do me a favor? Can you just welcome up my friend Joe Medina? Joe, does he have the mic? Okay, come on up, Joe. You know, Joe came on Father's Day of last year for the first time, and I know that. Joe, come on. Come on up on stage. Joe's a good man, and, you know, it's been a joy to get to know him and hang out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:58]:
He's part of our life group and all that. But like, Joe, when you first came, I know you said someone challenged you to live kind of a religious life, right. And you just came to check it out. But he said this, he said that from that first Sunday he came. He just kept coming. Right. What kept you coming? Well, the. Okay,

Joe Medina [00:29:31]:
well, the challenge that I had accepted, first off. So I was challenged to lead a religious life for six months. And then at the end of that six months, your life should be better.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:46]:
And your past six months, would you say? Right?

Joe Medina [00:29:50]:
Yeah. So I wanted to make an earnest effort and put Everything into that and got through the six months. And yeah, my life was a little better. So I re upped for another six months.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:12]:
And then somewhere along the line, you jumped in on the hospitality team on Sunday. Right. And what does that entail?

Joe Medina [00:30:23]:
So the part of the hospitality group that I'm with, we do the food there at the end and make the coffee and set up the water and all that stuff. So I think it was my third or fourth weekend, and I was still recovering from shoulder surgery. So I asked Corey, do we need help? You know, cleaning up, putting away the benches and stuff? Like, I can't do very much heavy lifting, but I can help. And that was also part of the challenge. You can't just like to lead a religious life. Doesn't mean, at least to me, just show up on Sunday for service, put in the time, and then leave.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:13]:
Right.

Joe Medina [00:31:13]:
I wanted to immerse myself in the church and get involved. So I asked Corey if there's something I could do with a one good arm. And he's oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think he realized his wife needed help.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:31]:
Remember Corey Freeman Hoskins? Right. They moved back to Texas at Christmas, and so that's why they're still missed. If you guys are watching, we love you guys. Still thinking about you, and we'll talk soon.

Joe Medina [00:31:43]:
Right. So he brought me over and introduced me to Lindsay. This is Joe, and he wants to help out. So she was showing me the ropes and teaching me kind of what they do. And I said, okay, well, sure, I'm game to help. I go, I need to shadow you for a few sessions because I never really done this before. You know, I never. I've never prepped food for more than two or three people.

Joe Medina [00:32:11]:
Right. So anyway, so it was a challenge, and there was a need, I guess, and so I just dove in.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:26]:
And so I know that that means you come early. You're right. You stay late.

Joe Medina [00:32:34]:
Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:35]:
And you serve other people. Do you get anything out of it?

Joe Medina [00:32:43]:
I get a lot out of it. So first of all, it's very gratifying when people like what we bring or they like what I make. But, you know, to see everybody hanging out afterwards, eating and chatting and having a good time together, that's extremely gratifying to me. It feels like I'm kind of making a difference in helping the church, helping Pastor Glenn. So I get a lot out of that. I really like that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:24]:
And I know that if you had never jumped in on that hospitality team, you probably never would have come to the life group. Right. The Wednesday group.

Joe Medina [00:33:37]:
I don't know. Probably not. But once I started that, then Donna was really pushing me into the life groups. Well, you know, it's like, I work full time. Actually. I work. Work a lot. I'm restoring my house.

Joe Medina [00:33:57]:
And anyway, then Steve invited me to the Wednesday group, and so I can usually make it before work, and then my days off change. So for, like, three Wednesdays in a row, I can make it for the whole time. It was good because the first time I showed up, like, this place. Place, like, seemed a little sketchy to me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:25]:
Everybody knows, no problem on the outside, right?

Joe Medina [00:34:28]:
Yeah, well, the. You know, the. The hood.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:31]:
Yeah, yeah.

Joe Medina [00:34:33]:
Steve was there, and I'm, like, looking at the building, it's kind of like, you know, all these iron bars and gates, and I was like, a little like. But, you know, Steve held my hand, and we went upstairs, and then I just really enjoy hanging around and doing Bible study with the gentlemen in that group. They're some of the finest men I've ever met in my life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:02]:
You know, I think that. And you've been a blessing. It's like.

Joe Medina [00:35:08]:
I wouldn't say that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:09]:
No, you are. You have. And. But, you know, Joe's basically new to church, right? And after a few months, got involved, didn't really know. A whole lot of people got part of a team, right? And that team connected him to other people, and different people reached out. Right? But you know what? We could. Because of him, we can do more, right? Because of him. To be honest, other people aren't doing it every week, right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:43]:
Because of him, that I think that everybody has a little bit more joy in the process. And it's simply because he didn't necessarily know the gifting or the talent for hospitality, but he had the heart, right? He had the heart. And so, hey, can we just say thanks to Joe?

Joe Medina [00:36:05]:
It's my pleasure. Truly, it's my pleasure.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:12]:
And, you know, some of us, to be honest, you've been super involved in the past. You know, you've been super. You've led stuff, you've been in stuff. And I have a bunch of friends who planted the church with us and did different things. And then, you know, sometimes things get where you take a step back. But you know what? I've been so blessed to see them jumping in, doing different things, and starting again. So even if you've been in the past, and to be honest, this is what the enemy says. It's for the young ones now, right? No, you're never too old, and you're never Too young.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:55]:
Tonight we had on the worship team a 10 year old, right? Leila? Amazing, right to drum. We have people here that are retired, right? And the thing is you're never too old, you're never too young. And I think the biblical priority in many ways is a multi generational mission. You know, I don't know if you. I know we got a lot of travelers too in our congregation and people love to travel. And I remember once I was traveling and we were, I was in the plane and I was meeting some guys on a mission trip and it was just an amazing sunset, just like fiery red and orange and the whole thing. And I remember looking at a turn to say, man, look at that. And I looked at there was nobody there, right? Because it was one of the few times I have traveled by myself to meet a team.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:59]:
It was in Indonesia. And you know, the thing is that, that was a long time ago. But the thing is that can you imagine if there is something that you wanted to pass on and there was no one there, right? That's not what we're designed for. We're designed to pass on this to the next generation. Sometimes that next generation is younger biologically. Sometimes it's younger in the years in the Lord, sometimes it's the younger in the terms of the, you know, just, they're just come on board. Maybe they've served in other places and been serving in a long time, but new to us. But Psalm 78 says this, that we will not hide these truths from our children.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:51]:
We will tell the next generation, let's say next generation, about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty deeds. And you know, so we, we have some things that we're, we're wanting to make sure there's a next generation. You know, that's what all our kids own. Our nursery, our journey, the junior high folks, the for life high schoolers and partnering with young life that we want to make sure, we want to invest in our young adults. We want to start some things that we haven't had going. And so when you're thinking about this, we're going to have a time that we're just going to break in a little bit here and just going to ask you guys to take five or 10 minutes to just visit around going to be some things and I know a lot of you guys are already serving. If you're serving, we just say thank you. But some of us are not for different things, for different reasons, but we're just going to ask you take five or Ten minutes to talk to some ministry, find out what they do, maybe how they do it, what's involved in jumping in with them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:58]:
And sometimes everyone will think this. You think adding one other person is going to make a difference? You know, because I'm just one person, but I'll say in advance, the answer is absolutely yes. Right. Anytime anybody gets involved, it makes a difference. Now, some teams will require that we learn some skills. We've had people who have come in, in video and different things, and we trained them and some of them, we sent them to classes. And to be honest, they. They started businesses out of that, Right? And even though that they've moved and moved on in different ways, they've gone with skills, right? And sometimes they've used them in churches, and sometimes they've used them for other ways to extend the kingdom.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:49]:
And some of them does require a little bit of a kind of a caution or let's say a step to get involved in anything that handles our kids. We also ask people to be willing to do a background check, right? Because we want to be safe for our kids. The most important things in life are our kids. But anybody can get involved anywhere. And I want to just ask you to just imagine a church where every person used their gifts and because of that encouragement was moving everywhere. People were being cared for, people were being discipled. The next generation was being raised up, someone was teaching their kids and praying over them, and worship was filled with life and needs were being met and becoming people, becoming more and more like Jesus and the church, the church that Jesus imagined. I think all of us would love that and every believer.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:58]:
Don't think about it as volunteering, by the way. Don't think about that as we want you to volunteer. Think of it as we want you to step into the reason and the purpose for which God called you. Think of it as aligning ourselves and God, using your heart and your hands to extend his kingdom, sometimes one heart at a time. Because that doesn't just happen with a few leaders or a couple people. It happens when every believer steps into some reason that they were not just saved from, but that what they were saved for, that you're safe to make a difference. And it starts in the local church family, starts in this church family. And so we're going to pray here in a minute, and then we're just going to release you to take 5, 10 minutes to do that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:56]:
If you do, you're going to. We just want to give you a gift. If you talk to a few folks, you know, there's probably, like, some cups and different things that we just love to give you. And just a little gift just to say thank you for taking the time to just check it out, because in this next season, we're believing that God is doing something and sensing God is doing something, but we'll never be able to do it if we just stay exactly where we are. We need to make space for new folks to come in and some of them so teams can grow. And sometimes it's for people to. To. To rotate and, you know, the guys who set up in the morning.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:39]:
And sometimes it doesn't take a gift as much as it takes a heart. A little bit of sweat equity makes all the difference in the world. And it. What it does is it changes a cafeteria into a sanctuary where people's lives have been changed, people have encountered God, had taken steps to get connected. And so sometimes it sounds like fireworks and sometimes it goes off like a bomb. But it doesn't matter that when we take a step in faith and love, hey, let's pray. Father, I thank youk that yout didn't just rescue us and say we should be grateful to go to heaven, but you gifted us and that, Lord, you want us to be part of a family. You want us to have a people, you want us to have friends.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:37]:
You want us to make a difference in our lives. You want us to be part of the people that you built. That said, that would be built upon the rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And, Lord, we get to serve one another and love one another and reveal Jesus and see more of you in all the multifaceted ways with every different personality and gifting and background, Lord, that somehow show about the glory and the power and the love of God. Because it's not about one ethnic group church, it's not about one gender, Lord. It's not about one station in life, Lord. The church happens in multiple generations and happens in all kinds of educational background and work backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds. Because I thank you, Lord, that the body of Christ is like a tapestry and that you're weaving us together to make a beautiful picture that represents you as your family.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:49]:
I'm thankful for this family and the many expressions, Lord. Bless us and bless each one. You know, if you've never said yes to Jesus, that's really the first part. That's the first start. And if you don't know that you've been rescued, you don't know that you've been forgiven, you don't know that you know that God doesn't want you to walk in the judgment. He wants you to walk into his presence. There's grace of relationship with him. It just starts by saying yes to him.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:25]:
If you've never done that, you know that's the best place to start. And I'm just going to pray a real simple prayer. And if that's you today, whether you're at home or watching us online, or you're in the house, it's not a magic words that you pray, just telling God, I need you, I want you and I trust you. And then he'll go from there. But simple prayer might be something like this. And you can pray along if that's your heart. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me, for seeing me, for wanting me. I want to respond, I want to love you back.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:17]:
Would you forgive me? I confess I've made my mistakes. I've sinned. But Jesus, thank youk. You came and died in my place. Would you'd come live inside me today. Cleanse me, renew me. Thank you that you save me from judgment, but you save me for something to make a difference, to become more like you, to know you, to be your child. I say this right now, Jesus, you are my Savior.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:59]:
You are my Lord. I belong to you. In Jesus name, Amen. Hey, can we say congratulations to those folks? We're going to take that five minutes tonight and then we're going to have some time to eat fellowship together. Hey, God bless you guys. Thanks for coming tonight.