Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:
Hey, you know, I didn't want to say thank you for praying for the Myanmar mission team. The team did a phenomenal job. Tim, Pastor, Mitch, Kim and Quentin, when you see them, tell them thank you. But also, if you have time, just ask them. Can you share something? Can you tell me, you know, how it impacted your life? What were you guys able to do? We're going to have a time to share about that a little bit more in the coming weeks. But I just want to say this, that we were able to be with people who are doing a phenomenal job, reaching their communities, reaching the people where they live, doing ministry in a really dark time in their country. And we brought encouragement, we brought training, we brought aid, we brought support. And, you know, one of the things that they say is just the fact that, you know that to be honest, in the past, a lot of people used to come, but given the circumstances, you know, that we were with some friends, they said, you know, you guys are the first people to come and you guys still coming since the pandemic, since the, since the coup and all those kinds of things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:13]:
So thank you for supporting so that we can be the people that they know they're not alone, you know, and, you know, we asked you to pray that the eyes that shouldn't see, wouldn't see, and the eyes that should be open would be open. And we saw that happen in spades from beginning to end. And I just gonna say this one little thing, you know, like, sometimes you don't really see when God has his hand on you. You guys ever notice that? Except maybe almost in hindsight. And so even as we're leaving, you know, it's a successful time. I just share this one little thing. And we're at the airport, we leave, we get on the plane, we jump. We have to overnight in Bangkok and then we head out from there the next day.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:56]:
But, you know, what happened is when we got in Bangkok, it's only an hour flight that we get texts from our friends that dropped us off at the airport and came to see us off. And they said, I don't know if you know this, but right after you guys left, they shut the airport down, canceled all the rest of the flights for the next three days because of this fuel shortage that's going on. And so, like, if we hadn't got out, like, I would just be getting over jet lag right now. But, you know, the thing is that God had his hand. Whether it's the last flight out or it's the divine appointments that we had. And seeing God move, it was such a blessing. And so thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:43]:
And then can we just say again, thanks to the team that went. That's the team that went. But you guys are the mission team as well, right? Because we cannot go apart from you. You know, as we close out this series, though, tonight, called Better Together, I just want to take some time, just a minute, to kind of summarize where we've been. You know, we've been talking about that we're better together in community. Right? And that when everybody uses their gifts and we don't live isolated lives, when we're stronger and we persevered together. Right? Like, Pastor Hale gave a great message last week. And so here's the question that we need to answer today is why does that matter? Why does it matter that we're better together? Is it so I can just feel connected or I can have friends or that being church is enjoyable? We hope all those things are true, but the reality is that those are good things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:03:41]:
But that's not really the ultimate goal or that's not the ultimate expression. Because to be honest, the church is here to represent Jesus, to extend God's kingdom. It's for impact and that God brings us together so that together we can make a greater impact in the world. And so talking about that, we're going to take a look this evening In Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 to to 10. We're going to read that together as we launch our message. And the final in the series just called A Greater Impact. And would you be kind enough, let's stand in reverence for God, reverence for his Word. And we're going to read these verses together out loud.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:21]:
Ready? Let's read. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works. So no one may boast. Let's pause here for a second. Freeze it on this next verse. What is that saying? None of us deserved it, none of us earned was something God freely did for us, right? If you could point to something in your life, it's like, you know why? Because I was a good guy, because I did these things, because I was generous, because I served in the church, because you know what? Then when we get to heaven, you know what? Heaven would be filled with the most braggadocious people in the world, right? Like, but it's saying this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:05]:
None of us can brag about it, but all of us can receive it, right? Because it was by grace, because it was by his mercy. God just poured it down on us. And then he says, is that it, though? Is that it? No, there's more. Let's see. What's this next, this last verse. Let's continue. Let's read together. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:38]:
And this is an amazing passage. I love this passage because it says that you and I, we don't just get rescued from something, we also get rescued for something, right? It's yes, we are saved from sin and judgment and separation from God. But you know what? It's saying that you're saved for purpose, for calling, and for impact. And so do me a favor, before you're seated, just turn to your neighbor and says, you were called to make a difference. Now you can have a seat. Does this reflect anybody else that before you were a believer that you lived for yourself, right? To make yourself happy, fill a hole in your life or whatever it is we live for ourselves. But then after Christ, we have this great capacity to live for something bigger than ourselves, because you weren't. And you and I, we weren't just rescued so that we could have services together, have potluck together to have those kinds of things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:44]:
And all those things are great, and it's part of a community life. But. But you weren't rescued just to sit. That you were rescued to be sent, right? You and I, we were rescued to be sent to do things, to advance the kingdom of God. And it says that you and I, we get to represent him in the world because that God created us for these things, right? So that we would walk in and he prepared it beforehand. When is that? Like before you were born, right? Before you were even born. So you know what that means? You're not an accident. You might not be perfect, but God made you and is still fashioning and still working in your life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:30]:
It means that you're not an extra piece. It means that you're necessary because we're God's handiwork. We're the thing he's working on that his craftsmanship, his design, right? And you know that God doesn't make junk, right? God doesn't just crank out all these extra pieces. And so we're all necessary for part of that plan. So what does that mean? This means that you don't have to ask whether you're called or not. You don't have to ask that. What you need to ask sometimes is that, am I walking in the thing to which I was created for, right? See, God already has things for you and I that we're supposed to be a part of. Now, I know that while we Myanmar, there were some eventful days that happened back home.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:30]:
I mean, you know what is weird? I missed it. All right? Like, I mean, we had some heavy rain, and then the. Thursday was the calmest day. That's the day we flew out. But I had an inkling that something was going to be bad because as we're flying out, we can see there's ice in the clouds. This is not normal. I never see that, like, coming flying out of Hawaii, right? There's stuff that's happening. And then, to be honest, we knew the deluge happened, right? And the island was.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:59]:
I mean, basically, there's no place that really kind of escape, right? Leeward side had this thing, roads washed out in Waianae, Home Road and all the power failures all over, right? For. I mean, and some of us escaped. That I understand. But on the windward side, right, the things were. Some people got their houses washed away, and south side Manoa Valley didn't really escape. I was shocked. That was after I got home. And you know what? On that Monday, this past Monday, looked out the window and I went.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:31]:
I looked outside and I go, oh, nice today. Today's nice. Maybe it was nice in Kapolei, but sure wasn't nice in. Sure wasn't nice in Manoa. And you know, the thing is that there's no place, obviously, I think we all know that on the North Shore and Wailua. It's like, I saw pictures I'm trying to follow, right? Like when we're coming home. And so in Narita Airport, I'm looking at video or pictures I cannot recognize. Like, I grew up in that place, like, as a kid and going all the time, and as a young adult, young man.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:09]:
And I cannot see the landmarks, can I see the street, cannot see, you know, the curve. And so when we look at stuff like that, it's, you know, sometimes it's. It's so devastating, and yet it's not in my backyard, right? But I think this is the thing that in the dark times, it can bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best in people. You guys notice that? So when I got back in town, right, So I saw some of us on church on Sunday. We literally came from, like, the airport, went to church and all that. But on Tuesday, I actually had a meeting with a bunch of the pastors that all the pastors on the island, and, and actually a president from Foursquare was in town, and we had scheduled already a lunch. And so I went to the lunch, and, you know, other pastors are there. And I saw this one guy I haven't seen, like, in years and years and years, and he's with his.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:05]:
His name's Ron, and he's with Pastor Roy Yamamoto. I don't know if anybody knows him, that they do Camp Agape. They have Agape Christian Fellowship up by Leeward Community College. And so I'm talking to Ron, which I haven't seen in a long time, and he just said, to be honest, I said, how'd you guys weather the storm? And he said, we're totally wiped out. And I go, wait, what? And he says, yeah, like, the office. The office was, like, wiped out. All their sound equipment, the area where they use in the meetings places, and they have, like, places for kids and for adults. And to be honest, they actually meet in a.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:43]:
A large kind of open tent, you know, without the walls. But they're just. It was just, he said, devastated. And then he said this, that he said, you know, Pastor Roy was saying, I don't know if we can have service this week because, you know, we don't have anything, right? Everything is just, like, underwater and muddy and all that. And then he was just saying, hey, but you know what? I told Pastor Roy that, no, we can have service because Jesus never have sound system, right? And, and I, I, I agreed with that. But you know what I was also thinking about, like, if I had come to that, if I had gone through that, come to this lunch and all the pastors on the table and all around, and we, we. There's some. There was a little bit of an order to some stuff.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:29]:
I would be thinking, oh, everybody's doing good. Nobody even knows. I mean, like, to be honest, I hadn't heard anything about this. And so at the end of the meeting, you know, they said they prayed, like, final prayer in Jesus name, Amen. I stood up and I said, hey, you know, can I get everybody's attention? I just don't. I know that Roy would not say anything. So can I say something for him? You know, I know that they're devastated and that there's insurance for a lot of that stuff. There's Foursquare, disaster relief for other stuff, and all that's going to be in operation, but we all know that's not instant, right? And so, you know, I bet that all of us, that we have equipment in storage, like, we have behind this curtain, right, that we have things in storage that we can put a system together for us so that he can at least be up for when his people come.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:26]:
They've been coming, they're cleaning and doing all those kinds of things that we can do that, right? And so, yeah, a bunch of guys were interested, and so we just. I just kind of created this thing so to say, hey, let's just put together. I'm sure we can put together something. You know, maybe you cannot do the whole thing, but we can put something good together. And, you know, as a result of that, that the folks out at Lighthouse and Kailua and some folks that kind of just. All online now. Pastor Arlene, everybody's saying something at Anchor Church. Those guys, they said, hey, and we had all this stuff that we had that I knew we could give, and I said, let's look for more.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:06]:
I'm sure we have more stuff to be able to give. And then, you know, one of the guys stepped up that at New Hope Windward, that one of the guys who's just a volunteer, and he happened to have a full on complete sound system all, you know, matched all these things and just in storage. And he felt like the Lord wanted him to give him, so he. He gave the whole thing so it would be much better than what we could all have given. Now, I knew. I know who this person is, but. So I knew this system would be good. But I got a call right before the service, pretty much before I came, and Roy called me and he said, you know what? I just wanted to say thank you because you're the first one that reached out, right? You're the first one that said something that would do something in the midst of this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:57]:
And I said, thank you for. He just thanked me, right? And I said, of course, of course, Raj. I know that we're going to stand together, man. We're going to. I know that there's other stuff that's coming up, and in fact, if you want to be a part, like doing relief work again, there's going to be some things on Monday and Tuesday. I know. And you can, you know, text us if you want to, but I just asked them this. I said, how's the sound system? And he says, you know, we had a really good sound system before the flood.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:32]:
But he said, with this one, I feel like I could be meet at Blaisdell. You know, like, we're talking like 10,000 tens of thousands of dollars of equipment. But you know what? That he could have come to that meeting and left that meeting exactly the same. But we just said this as a church. This is how we believe that no, we can do. We cannot do everything, but we should do what we can, right? And so let me give you three things that when we look at making a greater impact, that how can we do that? Just three things. The first one is this, that we serve the practical needs going on around us. And, man, how much more practical could that be for them at this season? Next week is Easter, right? I know that it's like, you're not going to cancel Easter.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:24]:
I know Roy. He's going to push forward some way. You know, there's a lot of things. We just want to put some tools in his hands, and if we can. And he says this in Matthew 5:14, Jesus said this. You are the light of the world. We are the light of the world. A city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:42]:
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, let's say in the same way, let your light right. In the same way, we should shine our light before others so that they may see our good works. And what tell us we all that no to give glory to your Father who's in heaven. And so I understand for people in Waialua, for people in Manoa, a bunch of folks out in Waianae, scattered throughout the islands, it's a dark time, maybe for a lot of us where we live, that maybe you got through relatively unscathed. But like I said, dark times can bring out the worst or it can bring out the best. And, you know, I've talked to some folks who've been going down to Waialua, and in fact, one of them is, like, my daughter's boyfriend. And so I just said, hey, how was it when you went and we didn't know, like.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:42]:
Like, how is it being coordinated? Or. He said, like, to be honest, you just show up and it's like you might. You might be shoveling this one thing, and then you're gonna take this thing and put it in a. Like a dumpster or whatever, and by the time you come back, gonna get five other people, you know, and the kind of recurrent thing I've been hearing from people, he says, it's almost like the old Hawaii, you know, when we really cared for one another. And I was just laughing because I said, you know what? Like, last two weeks ago, you could have been driving down the road and your neighbor cut in front of you and then almost go and get scrapped on the side of the freeway. And then now they're going to drop whatever they have and they're coming to make a difference, right? Because they know it's this. It's so overwhelming when you've been flooded, right? So overwhelming. And to be honest, for those guys, I don't know if insurance is going to work.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:39]:
And to be honest, when I think about it, I don't know, like, if flood insurance and all these things are going to work for other people, too. But some of us, if you don't know that, we're trying to partner with some folks, there's some house churches that kind of are set up on that side. Jesus House is a house church. I got to meet the pastor the other day, and there's some other people out there, like North Shore Christian Fellowship, and there's great churches out there. We want to partner with them. And we may never get any. You know, like, if we give. If we go, we may never get any kind of a name, and we don't really care.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:15]:
Jesus name is the one that be exalted, right? And. And to be honest, like, we don't really are. We might have some people who might come from that area, but, hey, we want the guys who are there all the time. We want them to think, hey, you know what? It's Jesus House who did it, right? It's not your Christian fellowship. That's the one, right? Let them get the, you know, because they're the guys right there, right? And so we can come alongside, you know, this Easter might be some things too, you know, like for us, as we're trying to reach out, you know, the setting up, coming in on Friday early and breaking down at the end after a weekend of service and other celebrations and egg hunts and doing all those things, and people are getting everything, you know, I think, together and planned. But to be honest, we're always needing people to jump in and make a difference. That can be a practical thing, right? But maybe you go home and. And you see somebody that you've been trying to reach out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:16]:
Anybody have somebody in their family that. To be honest, you know, not everybody in our families knows the Lord, right? And sometimes it's just, you know what, it's meeting a practical need. It's carrying the grocery in. It's doing a lot. I don't know what it is, but meeting practical needs. Here's the second thing, though, is that pray for God to move in people's lives. We all have people that we want to reach out to. Right? Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:43]:
We all have people that we want to experience God's love. And don't underestimate the power of prayer. Prayer moves the hand of God. Not because God is reluctant to move and that we got to beg him. God already wants to move, but what does he do? He says he prepares people. We looked at Ephesians 2:10. He. He prepares people that are going to do good works that he what prepared in advance that we would do.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:15]:
Right? And so God already wants to do these things, but he's waiting for the people to catch up to those things. And one of the ways we catch up is by prayer. And that's why Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, he says, pray in this way, right? Oh, Father in heaven, how holy is your name? And what's the next thing? Your kingdom come, your will be done. See, when we pray that the kingdom is extended, that we're asking God to move in people's lives, it aligns with something that God's already trying to do. And you know, when he does that, when we do that, he releases his power. He gives us a power that's greater than us. There's a number of people I think, that we pray for. One is the people who don't know Jesus, right? They still lost, right? I don't know if you guys remember before you were lost, right? I remember clearly.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:12]:
Might feel like a different life, but I remember clearly. And to be honest, it's not that I never knew any Christians growing up, I didn't think I knew any Christians. But later I met Christians, I just didn't want to see, you know, and I was blind. And so, you know, some things that we pray for is we pray for open, blind eyes, right? And Jesus, would you draw them to you? Second Corinthians 4, 4 says this, that the God of this world has blinded people so they cannot see. Right? You ever talk to somebody and it's like they don't have. They don't get it. It's like nothing because they're just blinded. The enemy doesn't want them to see.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:22:56]:
And so we pray. God, would you open their eyes so they can see and would you draw them? Right. Why do we pray that? So we're aligning with what God wants to do, right? So pray for the people who are far from God. Pray for the people who are lost. Sometimes, man, sometimes that's our siblings. Sometimes that's our. Our neighbors. Sometimes that's the guy that you're going to see when you go to work.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:22]:
And when we're in the midst of that, you know, like, sometimes we get discouraged. You guys ever get discouraged trying to share the gospel or whatever? Right. We get discouraged, but we pray so that God does something in their hearts and eyes and they sense God drawing them. And sometimes, maybe in the situation that we're at, there's maybe some folks out on the North Shore and doesn't have to be there, but could be some people that you've been dealing with stuff that's overwhelming, right? Could be an illness, could be a financial thing. And there's people that sometimes they're. I've seen really good people that they are so consumed in taking care of a. Of a sick person who's ill or somebody who's had dementia or somebody who is whatever, like. And they're, to be honest, and you want to tell them about Jesus, but they're just so focused because they're taking care of somebody else.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:15]:
They're taking care of an overwhelming need. And sometimes, to be honest, they're just tired. They're just tired. And so pray for those who are maybe losing hope at times, maybe overworked, maybe maybe just drained. All they can think about is, I cannot even think about God. I just got to think about putting that foot in front the next one and next one and get through. Why do we pray for that? Because God is the God who gives his strength to people. He says he gives power to the faint.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:51]:
In Isaiah 40, 29, 31, he said he gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. Literally, he can give people a strength beyond their strength. And even you shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord will renew their strength, and they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint. So we pray for them, right? We do practical things. We come alongside people, right? But we pray for them because sometimes it's when they're not with us, right? That's when they need the strength, right? When.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:33]:
When they're all alone, right? When they're weary, that's when they need it. And so pray for that, right? And God has compassion on the weary, right? God has compassion for them. And, you know, some of us, we have people who. They kind of know Jesus. Maybe they went to church, they went to youth group, they went to children's ministry, or, you know, they said yes to Jesus. But to be honest, their life not reflecting it, right? They just seem to be to be honest, you know what? The Bible uses the term. Use the term lukewarm, right? At times, and it's like not hot, not cold. You know, they're not evil, doing all crazy stuff, and they're just still kind of living their own life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:17]:
What do we pray for, people like that? Because to be honest. To be honest, sometimes it's kind of apathetic, right? They don't really care sometimes pray that God makes them thirsty. You know, when you're thirsty, you're looking for something to drink, you're looking for something to quench, something. To be honest, they're dying of thirst, but they're not aware. How many. Have you ever anybody see anybody dehydrated before? You just never realize you was dehydrated, working out in the yard, it's like a hot summer day, and, right. You don't even realize. I've seen guys come to church and it's like, boom.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:00]:
Not to point any fingers, but sitting over there, but just like at the end of service, it's kind of like, boom. Whoa, what happened? He was dehydrated, right? Go emergency and all that. But to be honest, he was thirsty and he never even knew it. Lukewarm people, they're thirsty, but they don't always know it. So you know what? We pray? We pray God, would you reveal to them their thirst? Would you reveal to them their thirst? Right? Because to their own hurt, you can incur damage to yourself when you don't realize that. Man, I. I need something to hydrate. I need something to fill me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:53]:
And so. And the last one, we'll just say is this, that there's. Sometimes there's people. They're really making a difference for the kingdom. And. And they don't. You know, people are pushing forward. They're.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:04]:
They're reaching out in the community. They're. They're. They're getting ready to do outreach on that Easter, right? They're doing stuff for, like, how to reach out to the kids. Teachers are prepping lessons and musicians are prepping songs. And guys in Vienna, they're doing all this stuff. And they don't really need us to do this, but they need us to pray for them, right? So it's not just their talent, it's not just their power, it's not just what they prepared, but something of the dynamic of the spirit of God. Thank you, brother.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:39]:
And something of the dynamic of the spirit of God is released, you know, before the service, that Ben, who brought me the water. Thank you, Ben. He said, pastor, can I Pray for you before the service. You have a minute? And I said, absolutely, because I need it, right? Did I prepare? Yeah, I prepared. Did I ask God for direction about what to. Yes, I asked God for direction. I felt like I got some direction for this message. But, man, do I want it to be what I said, like, what I can research.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:15]:
I want it to be more than that, right? I want it to be what God really wants to do. It's like, I'm not saying he doesn't use study. Of course he does. But I want something dynamic. I want something that's him. And you know what? Everybody who's doing stuff feels the same way, right? Everybody's doing stuff but the kids. That's what they want. We want the kids to encounter Jesus.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:38]:
We want the teens to encounter Jesus. We want the first person who comes for the first time to encounter Jesus. We want the person who's come every Sunday to encounter Jesus, right? But we need to pray. We need to pray for all of these. And this is just the last point, is to be a witness because we are sent by Jesus. To be a witness because we are sent by Jesus. You know, when we were in Myanmar, I had to do. I had this training thing I was going to do with pastors.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:17]:
And what I was told was that it was about to train the pastors who have no biblical training, really, or theological training. And when I thought that, it's like, okay, so, like, I have six hours to teach them whatever it is they can. So I prep some things, and you got how to read the Bible, all these things along that line again, different basic things that they would have to know. And then on that Monday when we're there, after we had gotten in, we'd been doing a couple days ministry, I run into some people that I hadn't seen in seven years in Myanmar. And he says, oh, Pastor Glenn, I'm looking so forward to your seminar, like, later in the week, Wednesday, whatever, Thursday, whatever day it was. And then I said, oh, yeah? I said, oh, yeah, thanks. He says, yeah, you're going to do this thing about evangelism strategy, right? And I said, what was that again? It's like how to tell people about Jesus and strategy. And I was thinking, is that what you were told? And he goes, yeah, that's what I was told.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:32]:
I'm totally unprepared for this. But, you know, the thing is that what I'm glad is. And to be honest, there's a part of me that I was like, who am I to tell these guys that they put their lives at risk. There's a little guy, his name is Verbey, skinny, short, you know, guy from Myanmar. He has had. He's been pulled over by the police. He's had his neighbors revolt against him. He's had his church burned down.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:12]:
Because he goes and he knocks on the door of his neighbors and says, ask that can I pray for you? And there's some radical. Some transformation, some radical healings, radical conversions, radical people coming to Jesus. But there's also been some radical hard stuff, right? And when I think about that, and I know this guy about that already, and I'm thinking, like, what am I going to tell these guys, right? Like, they're not all like him. But, you know, the thing is, we're all sent. And your situation and my situation is not the same. But you guys ever get nervous because you might tell somebody about Jesus and they might give you, like, the eye roll? When I think about, like, hey, I'm. I'm subject to that too, right? But I, like, I hate the eye roll, but nobody burning down my house. I never got pulled over by the police for preaching the gospel.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:20]:
I've been pulled over by the police, but not for preaching the gospel. But, you know, I was thinking about that, and this is what Jesus said. He says in Acts 1:8. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Verbi has power, and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, to Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the earth. God wants people near next to us and far away to know Jesus. You don't have to be go to Myanmar to be on mission. Some of us just need to go home.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:13]:
Some of us just need to go. Go to work. Some of you, you know what, you just need to go golf with your friends and you can be on mission if. If we'll witness because Jesus sent us. What does a witness do? A witness doesn't make somebody believe. A witness doesn't act, answer every conceivable question that someone could have, right? I have been pulled over to ask to be a witness. You know what I was. My responsibility was to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, right? About what I saw, about what I heard about and about what I experienced.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:11]:
That's all I had to do. That's all I had to do. And I wasn't responsible whether this person would be exonerated or like, I wasn't responsible for that. I just had to tell what I had experienced. That's what God's saying to us, right? Because why? Because we're being sent by Jesus. You know, on the way home, we connected in Narita, in Japan, on the way home. And so we're sitting in the plane after boarding. You know, we were there for a few hours, and lady sits next to me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:49]:
Shocks. I wanted the empty seat in the middle, right? But the lady sits there. Older lady and I just make small talk, right? So I said, hey, you headed? You heading home from Japan? Did you guys have a good time? And she said, oh, I love Japan. You know, like, I come. She comes twice a year. You know, generous lady. She brings her grandkids. She brought her grandkids on this trip.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:16]:
And, you know, she's just telling about all the things she's raving about. Oh, that's awesome. Awesome. And then she goes, did you have a good trip? I said, I was only laying over. I didn't even come to Japan. We just came in from, you know, Thailand, and we were in Myanmar and kind of explained a little bit about the mission. And she says, wow, you know, that's good what you guys are doing, right? And then I just asked her, I just said, hey, do you have any faith yourself? And she said, oh, I'm done. I never said that one coming.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:53]:
I didn't see that one coming. But Chinese lady. And so I used to see sometimes Taoists when I was. I worked some of you guys know, at Hawaii Memorial park in Borthwick before. So I used to see that guy come and they burned the money and they do all these things. And I looked it up a little bit, but I didn't understand. So literally, I asked the lady because I was sincerely wanted to know. I said, you know, I read some stuff, but I didn't really kind of understand it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:21]:
Can you kind of explain a little bit about what Taoism is about? She paused for a second and she says, not really. I kind of just do it because my mom was. And, you know, all. All I said to her was, I said, you know, I think there's good in just about every religion and that God has used it to preserve cultures, right? Like, to be honest, if it wasn't for Buddhism, probably Japan, they would have all killed themselves in the feudal years. You know, it's like different things. It's around the world in China, I'm sure Taoism and Confucianism, it kept the country going in the middle of, like, some crazy, crazy years. But you know what? It says that in these last days, God is calling everybody everywhere to Himself. It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what you believed and you know, what you've done.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:31]:
God's calling everybody. She looked at me, she nodded and she changed the subject. And it was fine. And you know, the thing is, part of it is if my goal was I had to convince her, then I would have been disappointed. That's not my job. I was a witness to what I've experienced. I did tell her a little bit like, you know, I wasn't raised in it and just I met Jesus, right. I did have a little bit more about it.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:11]:
And so if you're not responsible for convincing people, then I think you'll be much more likely to share it because God's only telling you to about what you've experienced, what you've seen, what you've heard, right? How God's moved in your life. Can you do more? Sure. Absolutely. You can. But that's not what it means necessarily to be a witness. You can start with that. And you know, in Ephesians 2:10, remember what that said? That we are God's workmanship, prepared in Christ, Christ Jesus, to do good works that he has prepared for us in advance. I knew on that plane that I was ordained to be next to that lady.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:05]:
Right. The other day when I got back, I needed to try to reset my time clock because it's like crazy time difference. So to be honest, Sunday, even though I was tired, you know, I went to go work out just to set my time clock. To be honest, I wanted to also go and see this guy that is just a guy, you know, like, hey, that fist bump, the, you know, kind of high five, hey, brother, how you doing? Right. That kind of a thing. Good to see you. And just that kind of chit chat. I don't really know him that great, but we talk.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:39]:
Sorry a little bit. He wasn't there. And so I went Thursday and it was right before small group. And my wife is not excited if I try to go to the gym before small group because that means she got to do everything. But I said, you know, I got to go see this guy. And that's what my goal. I don't want to wait till next week. And you know what I do is in my phone I have this little thing and I keep one little invitation.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:13]:
And so I just prayed and I went to the gym and. And when I pulled in, I never see this guy in the parking lot. I always see him inside in different times, but I just park right next to him, right? And Then I say, hey, brother. Like, he never seen me for a little while, right? So we just. And I just say, hey, you know what I said? I said, hey, what you doing this Easter? And he said, oh, I don't know. Nothing really. Yeah, nothing really. I just said, hey, if you're not busy, we have everyone's celebration and all kinds of stuff going on, and if you can come, we'd love to have you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:49]:
That's all I said. And he took the car and he go, oh, yeah, yeah, maybe I can come. You know, I thinking about it, I think I can if he comes. Is that when I'm successful? No, I was successful because I invited him, because I witnessed however God uses that, that's God's, right? And so when you got these invitations and your bulletin, or you can get it like on the digital thing when we've texted them out, they're not meant just to be a bookmark, right? They're meant to be just a tool just to say, so you can be a witness. What does that mean? Your everyday world. Sometimes people a little bit different than you, or sometimes it's somebody who's. You'd never really be caught in the same circle. But you're concerned about it, right? Because your mission place is your workplace.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:00]:
Sometimes your mission place is your home. It's your neighborhood, right? It could be going out to Wailua, it could be your surf buddies, it could be the people that you, you know, you hang out and you play cards with your girlfriends, right? It's your everyday life. Because we gather for strength, right? But we go for impact. We go for impact. We don't go in our power. Because this is not about trying harder, be better, do more. That's not what it's about. We are like the disciples that when they're apart from Jesus, they were nervous, hesitant, didn't want to be seen, didn't want to be identified.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:46]:
But when they were filled with the Holy Spirit says they were bold, right? They had love. And you know what? God created opportunities. And he did amazing things. So here's what we do. He says, we ask the Spirit to fill us. We ask the Spirit for boldness. We ask the Spirit to lead us and guide us. Because can you imagine a church where everyone sees themselves as God's representative, right? That's the church I want, where everybody who sees themselves says, lord, use me.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:31]:
It's a place where every home then can become a place for ministry. Where every believer lives as God's, as God's children gathers together, get strength. But Goes because they sent into the world to make a difference. Because that's how cities change, that's how countries change, that's how neighborhoods change. Right? Because that's how the gospel spreads. So I'm just going to ask you a little question. Where has God placed you? Where has God placed you? Who has God connected you to? What has God revealed to you? Do you know his grace? Do you know his mercy? Do you know his love? Do you know his power? Just tell people what you experienced. Amen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:29]:
Okay, let's pray. Father, tonight as we're here. Thank you Lord, that you. We gather for strength, Father. We gather to worship, Father. We gather to learn. But Father, thank you that you say we can make a difference with our lives. When we go and sent people, You know, maybe some of us, we've been a little passive, we've been a little comfortable, we've been a little inward focused.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:15]:
And it's about God, what can I get? What are you doing for me? And there's a time and a place for that. God said obviously to ask about those kinds of things, but he also says that we ought to share, that we ought to be a witness. And sometimes it's so easy to make life about us, but it really isn't. So I'm just going to pray for us that we would be filled again with his spirit, that we'd have boldness again, that we can see people who are around us, that we can see needs, that we might have faith to pray. Whether it's the lost or whether it's the ones who are challenged, whether it's the ones who are weary, whether it's the ones who are working hard and advancing God's kingdom. But if that's you today, would you just open your hands to God and just say that you want God to fill you, that you want him to use you to make a difference. Would you just open your hands? Spirit of God, we thank you for Jesus, we thank you. We don't do these things because we are loved to be loved.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:42]:
We do them because we are. And Father, would you fill us with your boldness, with your promise, Lord, with your love for people, with your compassion for people. I pray, Lord, that sometimes this performance that we can feel to have to win people have to do those things, Lord, that we just lay that that's up to you, God. But Father, would you give us clarity that when we go, we're come to come alongside. We're called to witness of you, witness for you, Father. We're called to be a people who represent you. We need fresh fire, Lord, to empower us, to renew our hearts, to give us a boldness. Father, we receive that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:42]:
Lord, I thank you. You want my lost friends, my lost family to come to you. The people that I work with, the people that I go to school with, the people I hang out and I play with. God, I thank you. You want them to know you so badly that you died in their place. God and Father, thank you that you ordained me to be in this place, in this time. Lord, help me to walk in it, not just for what I get out of it, but so I can see my friends, my family, my loved ones, my neighbors, my community come to the knowledge of Jesus that changes their life, that writes their name in heaven, that that renews their hearts and sets them on fire with purpose and power for living. We pray these things.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:50]:
Spirit of God, only you can do it, but do it through me. In Jesus name, Amen. Hey, we're going to sing this song, the blessing. You guys familiar? You guys know that song that God wants to bless you? Why? So that you would be a blessing. And then we're going to close together.