Inspire

Guest (Female): Aloha and welcome to the Inspire Church podcast. Whether you're on a walk, driving to work, or just need to hear a fresh word, this is your spot to get inspired, challenged, and equipped to live a faith-filled life.

Every episode, you'll hear powerful sermons straight from our weekend services that speak into your life, your leadership, and your legacy. Before we dive in, do us a favor, hit that subscribe button, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs a word today.

And if you want more resources like Pastor Mike's new book, Blow Your Mind, head over to MikeKai.tv. All right, let's lean in, open our hearts, and let God speak through this message.

Mike Kai: Amen. All right. Here we go in our Christmas series. I'm excited to preach the word today. I just want to say, I know last week the video came through all the way from Kapolei. Can we thank the Lord for the Kapolei grand opening, everybody? That was six or seven years in the making. We had nine hundred people that were there. Kahu Kurt Kekuna did the opening ceremony. He used to be the kahu at Kawaiahaʻo Church, and he's a mentor and a great friend of mine.

It was a powerful Sunday, but I'm glad that you could experience it all the way over here. We got the technology that goes back and forth, so they can watch this there. I could be there, watch here. My role changes, you understand that, right? I have another big campus over there on the west side that's brand new, so there are going to be times I'm going to be there and I'm not going to be here.

Someone else is going to preach here and give them the same courtesy, the same amens, the same open heart to them as well while I'm there, or if we broadcast here and we broadcast there. Is that good? All right. Can we thank the Lord, everybody? Praise God. All right, this is 10:30. You're supposed to be louder than this. Moving right along. The louder you get, the faster I preach. Then we can go get some lunch. Anyway, I have a word of God for you today, I believe with all my heart. I want you to bow your heads and pray with me.

Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. God, we thank you for your presence and your power that is in this place today. Lord, I pray that you would help me to preach. God, I pray that you would help us to hear your voice, and that we would hear your still voice beyond my voice.

God, we give you the glory, the honor, and the praise. God, I pray that you would take this message, and I pray that you would tailor it for every person. Let it be different, but let it fit like a hand in glove, that everybody got what they needed today, Lord God. Somehow, some way, Holy Spirit, take these words, but never let me deviate from the true meaning of the scripture. Lord, we give you the blessing, we give the glory, the honor, and the praise. In Jesus' mighty name, and everybody said, amen.

Can we thank the Lord, everybody? Can you play that "Nothing But the Blood" part? When you play that, did you feel that when it said, "Oh, precious is the flow"? Did you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit there? I'm not going to replicate it. I just want to let you know that's an environment that you have walked into here today, that nothing but the blood of Jesus, no man, no woman, no edict, no decree can do anything.

The only thing that can take away my sin and your sin is the blood of Jesus. That's why God sent his one and only son into this world to be from the cradle to the cross, to the empty grave. That was the mission of all humanity, for God sent his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Amen.

I want you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 1. As you are turning to Luke, I'm going to be in Isaiah chapter 9 real quick. I want to set the context for this passage of scripture that we are about to read about the prophet Isaiah. When I was a young boy, my favorite basketball player, his name was Isiah Thomas. I don't know if you heard about him. Not Isiah Thomas from the Seattle area who played for the Boston Celtics at one point, or who was the shorter Isiah. He was named after him.

My OG Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons, from the Indiana Hoosiers, because when I was smaller, I was looking for shorter heroes. I don't know about you. When you're shorter, you look for short heroes. You got a shorter person you recognize, right? For me, it was Spud Webb. Five-foot-seven Spud Webb. When I first found out that somebody five-foot-seven could dunk, Spud Webb all of a sudden became my idol when I was thirteen years old.

Then I heard about Isiah Thomas playing for the Indiana Hoosiers as a kid. Even though I'm a baller still to this day, I'm a baller. I'm going to tell the truth and shame the devil. I'm a baller. I'm an old school baller, but I ball. I remember during those days, I was looking for somebody that I could identify with, and anytime I would find somebody shorter, I'd identify with them.

So for me, Isaiah Thomas was my guy. When I was in the Catholic Church and I was a kid and I went through the whole communion process and the whole confirmation, they say, "What new name do you want?" I said, "I want the name Isaiah." It had nothing to do with the prophet Isaiah, but I knew it was biblical, so I picked the name Isaiah. Anyway, moving right along.

I love the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is the one that God begins to pick during the reign of King Ahaz. Israel has had a succession of evil and wicked kings. This is after King David and his Davidic kingdom. We go from David, and David was the greatest king that Israel ever had. That's why the star of David is on the flag of Israel, because that was the star of David.

God said that David would always have someone on the throne. We also know that he had a son named Solomon. Solomon was good in the beginning, and then he strayed away from God. Solomon had a son named Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was the one that split the kingdom in two. You had twelve tribes all together in Israel. You know this, but some people don't, so I'm going to go through it anyway.

You had ten that retained their part of the nation to the north, and they kept the name Israel. Still, the nation has that name to this day. It's the name that God gave to Jacob. He changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Then the other two, they remained in the south. They were the Southern Kingdom, and they were called Judah after the tribe of Judah.

Their capital was in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital, but Israel needed a new capital, so they picked Samaria. Now when you've got this divided kingdom, ten in the north and two to the south, the Northern Kingdom was already straying from God. They had already created more golden calves that they could worship.

They syncretized their worship, called syncretism, where they would take what was pure of Yahweh and they'd mix up other religions inside of it. So they throw a little bit of Baalism and worship Baal, a little bit of Asherah. Before you throw in a little bit, the Bible says that yeast works its way through the whole dough.

Now it wasn't any Yahweh anymore. It was all Baal, it was all Asherah. It was sacrificing children in the fire. That's what they did. It was wicked, it was evil, it was witchcraft, it was devilish. So the nation to the north, the kingdom of a divided nation turned totally towards demonic worship. God still sends some of the greatest prophets to get the Northern Kingdom to turn back to him.

He sends an Elijah, calls on fire from heaven. He sends Elisha with the double portion and begins to minister to them. But the Southern Kingdom kings, they were good until they had a succession of twelve different dynasties, one after the other, until finally they come to the dynasty of Ahaz, not to be confused with Ahab and Jezebel. Ahaz. Ahaz is supposed to be godly. Ahaz was supposed to continue what his forefathers did.

But the Bible says that Ahaz did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. That's what he did. It wasn't a slippery slope. It wasn't just he was slowly backsliding. No, no. It was a deliberate turn away from God and doing what the pagan nations were doing and their detestable practices. Ahaz jumped away from God, and now God sends and raises up a prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah approaches him. God downloads to Isaiah. God speaks to Isaiah, and Isaiah goes and he has a word for Ahaz.

The word is powerful. Anytime you had a prophet that was approaching a king, the kings made themselves available to the prophets back then. This prophet Isaiah speaks to him, and he says all of this judgment is about to come on the house of Ahaz. But then he says in Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 to 7, "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us." We're talking about the Messiah. "And the government will rest on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace."

Four names of the coming Messiah. We could describe him in even greater detail, but these are four names. Look at verse 7 on the screen, and then we're going to go to Luke chapter 1. It says, "And his government or his governance and its peace will never end. And he will rule with fairness and justice." That's the government that will be on his shoulders from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

Because God told David that because he built him a temple, he would always have an ancestor sitting on the throne in the Davidic line. Jesus came out of that Davidic line. Are you following me so far? Can I get an amen? Listen, and then it says, "And the passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies will make this happen."

Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 to 7, is a perfect segue because Ahaz was so wicked. God gave Ahaz still a son, and his son's name would be Hezekiah. Hezekiah, the Bible tells us, was one of the most godly kings that Israel ever had. So it goes from Ahaz, and God says, "All right, I'm going to wait until Ahaz dies. When he dies, I'm going to raise up his son. His son Hezekiah will restore temple worship, will restore the joy of the Lord in the nation of Judah, the kingdom of Judah, and he will reign forever and ever." Come on, somebody say amen.

That prophetic word was twofold. It was to be fulfilled in Ahaz's lifetime and Isaiah's lifetime, but it was talking about a future yet to come. The future yet to come was seven hundred years later during the birth of Jesus Christ. First, we have to talk about a couple of terms I want to give to you. The first term I want to talk about is the Annunciation, and the second term I want to talk about is incarnate.

The Annunciation is the announcement. It is the announcement, the herald by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel has the annunciation to Mary, the annunciation to Zechariah, and we're going to look at their two different differences in how they replied. The word incarnate means literally in the flesh. In the flesh. So incarnation is to be in flesh. That's who the Messiah, Jesus, would be.

The Bible tells us in the Gospel of Luke, in Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 33, it says that in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman. The Lord is with you."

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. "Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God. And you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. And he will be very great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David," the Davidic line, "and he will reign over Israel forever, and his kingdom will never end."

Mary asked the angel, "But how can this happen? I am a virgin." And the angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the baby to be born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say that she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month, for the word of God will never fail."

Come on, everyone. And verse 38, look at her response. Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything that you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her. This passage of scripture is unique in and of itself. What I love about this passage of scripture is there are two contrasting ways that one person receives the news from God and another way that someone else receives the news from God.

The Bible tells us in verse 26 that it was in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Remember, we just read that Elizabeth was barren. God had opened up the womb of an older woman. The Bible tells us right before it in Luke chapter 1 that there was an older man and an older woman. They had no kids. His name was Zechariah, and her name was Elizabeth. They had been married for a length period of time.

The Bible says that they were godly. It meant that they were holy. They were set apart to the Lord. It meant that they lived a godly life. They were an exceptional older couple that were not able to have kids at this point in their life. So God began to do something interesting. God began to pick this old man and this woman because he would need to send the forerunner.

That would be what we would consider the John the Baptist of that era, the Elijah of that era. The Elijah of that era would be John the Baptist. John the Baptist was about to come into the world. His name was not John, last name Baptist. No, it was John the Baptizer. That's what it was, so they called him John the Baptist.

So John would be the offspring of this older couple who couldn't have kids. They had been trying for years. They probably gave up, and they probably had prayed about it and stopped praying anymore. They had been able to console themselves and to come to the conclusion that they would probably have no kids and they'd probably be really great uncles and really great aunts.

They would have so many nephews and nieces that everybody would want to go to Uncle Zechariah's house and Aunt Elizabeth's house because Uncle Zack and Aunt Elizabeth, they don't have kids, so they were just like the place that you wanted to go and hang out, the uncle and aunt that bought everybody everything that they wanted when they were kids.

But while Zechariah happened to be in the temple during that time that his order of the priesthood was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to go into the temple for him to offer incense in the temple in Jerusalem before Jesus' birth, before this is happening, before we even talk about John the Baptist, he is in there.

While he is in there, the angel Gabriel is in the temple, and it frightens him. I don't know about you, but I'd be scared too. If I'm in the backstage over here all by myself, thinking I'm all by myself, fixing something back there, and all of a sudden I turn and I see an angel, you already know I'm on the verge of a heart attack.

So this is him getting the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and some people never get this chance. It's his moment to go into the presence of God, not expecting an angel to show up while he's worshipping God. The angel says to him that your wife will become pregnant. He's doubting the angel, and he says, "How can this happen? My wife, I am old and my wife is even older."

No, he didn't say that. "I'm old, but my wife is old too." In other words, he's saying this can't happen. And the angel says, "Why did you doubt me? I am Gabriel, and you will not speak until this child is born." So he is mute for nine months. Now I don't know if this guy was a talker. I don't know if he was chatty. I don't know what he was like, but for nine months, he couldn't talk.

How do you think he communicated? He played hangman. He probably played pictionary. He probably did charades. He said, "Give me the chalk," and he'd write down stuff on the chalk. He couldn't communicate. But all of a sudden, when he is born, let's fast forward the story. He is born six months before Jesus. Everybody's picking names. "What's his name? Zechariah Junior? Should we call him ZJ? I don't know. We should call him maybe after your father, we'll call him Moses or Moshe, or maybe, I don't know, what is his name?"

Everybody's picking names, and nobody's asking him. He's getting frustrated. He gets the pen and he writes, "His name is John." He writes it out, and all of a sudden he can talk. And everybody says, "I liked him better when he couldn't." The Bible says that Mary is responding differently. Mary responds, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true."

Then the angel left her. She does have a question. She says, "How can this happen? But I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." I'm wondering if I can preach for a little bit today. I wonder how many of you need a breakthrough today and you are saying, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true."

I think about this. I think about the response of a man who shouldn't be responding this way. I think about a man who had example after example in the Old Testament of older people having babies. I thought he would have understood that Sarah was a barren woman and she still was able to have Isaac.

I think about how Hannah would cry because she couldn't get pregnant. All of a sudden, finally she goes to the tabernacle in Shiloh, and when she gets there, she goes to the tabernacle and she offers her son there. God begins to do something powerful, and she has a baby. I thought that Zechariah would have been more ready for an encounter with God, but I guess not.

But this young thirteen-year-old girl, fourteen-year-old girl, because that's how old when they got married back then, this girl was more submitted. She was more ready than Zechariah. One day we'll see Zechariah in heaven. Don't tell him what I said about him. We'll fist-bump him, we'll give him a hug. But let me tell you right here, this girl, Mary, she is amazing.

The first thing I want you to write down in your notes, if you're taking notes, number one, invite God into your moments. Invite God into your moments. God doesn't always announce himself in dramatic ways. Sometimes his movement begins with an interruption, a holy disruption. What do you mean, a holy disruption?

She was about to get married, everybody. The Bible says that she was already engaged to another brother. It was already going to happen. They were already planning the party. They had already ready to have the luau. They already had everything picked out. She was betrothed, and betrothal is a different level than engagement.

In that part of the world, to be betrothed with somebody, to be betrothed really meant you walked into a legal agreement with somebody, a legal agreement of the opposite sex of someone that you were going to marry that your parents had already set this up on this side, your parents had set it up on that side. It's called arranged marriages.

It's an ancient thing and not so ancient. There are people in the world that still do arranged marriages. I kind of like that concept, to be honest with you. You know what I mean? I like that concept. Like this family is going to connect with that family, and your faith is connecting with that family's faith, that they have your values and you've got their values. They got a son, and then you got a daughter. They're of the same age, of the same value.

And then, you know what you call that? They call that matchmaking. And there's actually a profession called the matchmaker. And some of you go, "Yeah, there's an app for that." No, I'm not talking about that app. You've been on that app, right? No, no, no, no. We're talking about matchmaking. Do you know that there is an actual profession of people, not just like, "Let me hook you up"?

I'm talking about people of families, and sometimes mostly Jewish families, who do that. Have you ever seen the musical Fiddler on the Roof? You never seen it? Have you ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Have you ever seen Oklahoma? Have you not seen it? Then do yourself a solid this Christmas. Do yourself a favor and watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, watch Oklahoma, and watch Fiddler on the Roof.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. All right, wrong crowd, I'm the man. Wrong crowd. Because that's what they did back then. They matched them up. So Joseph has already been matched up with Mary, and Joseph and Mary are about to get engaged. They're already engaged. They're about to get married. This is going down, and then all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel appears in her room.

After he appears in the temple six months later, Gabriel announces the annunciation, the announcement that she has been picked out of all the girls in Nazareth, out of all the virgins in Nazareth. There is one girl that God has decided to pick, and it's Mary. But God has also picked out of all the young Jewish boys in Bethlehem, out of all the young men, God had already been watching him, already been seeing him, and his name is Joseph, that Joseph would be the protector of his son.

The incarnate, the incarnate in the flesh son come to this world. John chapter 1, verse 14 says, "We have seen the Son, we have seen the Father, he is in the flesh." This is Jesus. He is incarnate in the flesh. And the Word became flesh to us. That is who he is. When you allow God into your moments to interrupt your plans, God can interrupt them. You never know what God can do with a plan that you have in Jesus' name.

So now God's already picking, God's moving pieces on the board. He's already got a young man from Bethlehem. He's already got this. He's going to bring them together, and then the angel's going to tell her that you are pregnant, you will become pregnant. Not that she's perpetually a virgin. She would not be perpetually a virgin.

After she gives birth to Jesus, Joseph and Mary will have, biblically, at least four more boys and two more daughters. Possibly two. So Mary deserves to be honored. Mary is blessed. Mary deserves to be recognized as a young girl that gave birth and raised the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But she is not to be worshipped.

The only one that should be worshipped is Jesus. Come on, he is the only one of our adoration. He's the only one that should be worshipped in Jesus' name. As someone who was raised up in and I thank God for the Catholic Church that I was raised up in. But as someone that was raised up in that, I was like, wait, wait, wait. Hang on. Wait, wait. I had a hard time with that. I had to come to grips with that. I had to look for biblical reasons why I would no longer be offering a Hail Mary prayer.

It's because she is not to be worshipped. Only Jesus is to be worshipped. Can I get an amen? Number one, you got to invite God into your moments. You got to invite God into your moments. Second thing is this, number two, you got to trust God beyond your understanding. You have to trust him beyond your understanding.

You know, when God calls you, it doesn't all make sense. When God calls you to do something, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't always make sense. In other words, or sometimes you don't have the whole picture. Sometimes you don't have everything that you think you need in order to make that kind of a decision. Like I need all the facts and the figures. I need to write a ledger on the right side and the left side, the pros and the cons.

Do your pros and cons. Do your pros, do your cons. At the end of the day, it's all about what is the Holy Spirit saying to you. Is he leading you? Do you know, and it's confirmation through the word. Because when you look at this and you begin to see that Mary was interrupted because she was allowed, she allowed Gabriel to interrupt her plans because she knew God, she loved Yahweh, and she trusted him that Yahweh would have her best.

And her response to me is more adult than Zechariah. "May it be to me as you have said. I am a servant of the Lord." You know there are going to be times that you don't even understand it, that you wouldn't even know. When I was working at American Airlines, come on, I had a job at American Airlines. I had a union wage and flight benefits.

People thought to me, you're crazy for giving up that job. I worked there for twelve years. Twelve years for American Airlines. A great airline. Great, great airline at the time. Still is probably today. I worked there. I was like it was a good job, making good money. But I remember that when I took over the youth ministry, and I didn't it didn't have to be a big thing. Sometimes we think it's got to be such a great thing. I need to leave a great thing.

I need to jump into something greater. No, no. Sometimes the way up is actually a step down. Sometimes we think, "Well, I got to get promoted, it's got to be equal or greater." No, sometimes a step down is actually a step up. Sometimes a step down is actually a step up. And sometimes what begins to happen, we think, well, that's beneath me, that's below me, I don't think that's something that I should do.

But if God is calling you to do it, then sometimes you got to let it go. So let me ask you a question. What are you holding on to so tightly that God says, "If you relax, I can take it from you and make it greater than ever before"? So I remember that when I gave up that job, I thought, oh my gosh, I don't know how I'm going to replace that income. God replaced the income like that.

And I remember when I was a youth pastor and I loved youth ministry and I loved it. I had a great time, the time of my life being a youth pastor. And I remember then when I got called over here to Waipahu, Waikele, the Waikele Elementary School. We had and I keep telling you how many times have I told you there's no air conditioning.

About a hundred times, right? There was no air conditioning. One hundred and one times. Here we go, keep counting. And I remember when I went over there, it was so hot, it was so bad, it was so sweaty, terrible. But I loved it. The people, I loved the privilege and opportunity God gave me. But you know what? When I left the youth ministry, the youth ministry was bigger than the church.

Had one hundred and twenty people and dropping down to about less than forty people. About forty people. Then it became sixty and it slowly grew. But I remember that was a step down. I didn't know it was a step up. And I remember that I had to let that go. I didn't want to let that go because my identity was wrapped up in what I was doing.

And that's why some of us don't want to quit what we're doing because our identity is wrapped up in that, and if you take that away, you don't know where you stand or you're a little lost. And God says, look, you find your identity in me. That was the most powerful lesson that I learned. And you know what? It doesn't have to be all the big things.

That's why the Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight." Very good, straight.

Third one, and the worship team can come up. Number three, time flies when you speak fast. Here we go. Number three, submit fully to God's word. Submit fully to God's word. Obedience leads to blessing. Every time you obey the Lord, it's another step toward blessing and breakthrough. Every time you obey the Lord, it's another step for blessing and breakthrough.

And even there are going to be times that you obey the Lord and it's not going to be popular. And you might lose something big. You might lose a position. You might lose the promotion. It's the real stuff. But then there are going to be times that God will take care of you. Why? Because you were obedient to the word of God that you believe in.

It's not always going to lead to a financial breakthrough. It's not going to always lead to a financial blessing, although that doesn't always happen that way. In fact, if you take your life and you move it to the Middle East, obedience doesn't always let you keep your life. If you take your life right here in Hawaii and we put ourselves in a place like India, where you cannot openly worship, you can't even go to church. They shut down all the Christian churches.

If you go to a place like that and you serve in an orphanage or you serve God there, they could ban you from ever coming back to the country if they found out that you were telling other people about Jesus. That just happened under Modi in the last five to seven years. Christian organizations that were big over there, Compassion International, you name them, they were big, they were massive, they were doing great things. Kicked them all out, kicked out all the missionaries, got rid of them all.

You take what we know here and you put it in some Southeast Asian country. You put it in some parts of the African continent. You put it there. You could lose your life for obedience. Lose your life to obey God. You could be in Armenia. You could be in northern Iran. You could be in different parts of the Middle East, and for obeying God, you could lose your life.

But obedience, the Bible says, is better than sacrifice, and it's better than the fat of rams. To obey God is pleasing to him. And we live in a time and a place where God, like Mary, says, "God, I give you my plans. God, I give you my reputation. God, I give you my future. God, I give you my whole life. I will surrender to you, and I will obey your word."

Number one, invite God into your moments. I encourage you this year, what's remainder of this year, invite him into your plans, invite him into your week, invite him into your day. And be open that when he appears or he sends someone.

I was on a plane just the other day coming home from Kona. I want to keep this private. It's an example that I want to share with you, but I want to be careful. And I got you know, I'm at the Pualani Atmos, Pualani Atmos. We're doing the switch over now. Hawaiian to Alaskan. So I got bumped up to big deal, nice from emergency exit row. You get to sit up front.

I'm sitting right next to a guy who bought his ticket. He bought his ticket, I got bumped up into that ticket. I'm sitting down on the flight going to Kona. I have to go plan a planning retreat, and I've got my laptop open. I'm getting ready for Midday Manna, and I'm typing out my devotion for the day. I've got my scripture, boom boom boom. He's sitting to my left. I'm sitting to his right. Nice guy. We don't really talk much. "Hey, how's it going?"

And then he's got these Meta glasses. Ever seen a guy with the glasses? They got the cameras over here, the Meta ones? He's wearing that. Anybody wearing them right now? Looking at me right now, wearing them? Anyway, just wondering. I said, "Those are cool, bro." He goes, "You want to try them?" I was like, "Wow, friendly guy." I said, "Yeah, sure, I'll try them."

I put them on. He goes, "Bro, you look good in them." "Oh, thanks, man. Can I have them?" No, I didn't say that. But I wanted to say, "Bro, if I look that good, let me have them." So I put it on and I gave it back to him. I said, "These are cool. Right on." He goes, "Yeah, I noticed your laptop. Are you doing a devotional? Are you reading a devotional?" I said, "No, I'm writing a devotional."

"You're writing the devotional?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "What do you do?" I said, I don't always go there. I do, but I try to beat around the bush, because I don't want to argue. I just tell him, "I'm a pastor." He goes, "You're a pastor? Really?" I say, "Yeah." He goes, "Wow, cool. Tell me the name of the church." Told him. "Tell me what you guys are doing." Told him.

And then I just said, "What about you?" He goes, "No, I'm a CEO of an ice cream company." Really? That's pretty cool. Right on. And he goes, "Yeah, do you know like the New Hopes in Japan?" I said, "I do know the New Hopes in Japan. Do you know Pastor Talo Sataraka?" "Yes, that uso is my friend." I never seen a Samoan pastoring in Japan before, and he's great at it because his wife's from Japan.

He goes, "That's my big brother." I said, "That's my uso." He's like, "What? That's crazy. That's amazing." So we get off the plane, we take a photo with one another. Then he sends it to Talo. I send it to Pastor Talo. I said, "Hey, this guy says he knows you." He goes, "That's my little brother. He says stay in touch with him. Please, stay in touch with him."

So I texted this man, this CEO, before I left and came back to Oahu. I texted him. I said, "You bought your ticket. I got upgraded. God must have a plan for you and this relationship." I just want to let you know. Are you open? Are you open? Because sometimes I'm closed. I'm not always a hundred percent open like I am on stage. I'm not always like this off.

I'm the same guy. Like sometimes I'm just chill, hat down, walking through the airport. You know, sometimes I don't want to talk to everybody. You know what I mean? Because I talk a lot. I talk for a living. My calling is to talk. God called me to speak. I pray I can talk longer than Zechariah. Can I get an amen?

I'm almost done, but here's what I know. That day I was open. If I kind of was, "Don't bother me, let me turn my back, let me turn my," you know what I mean? Stay in my world. I don't know what God would have done. I think maybe I need him in my life. Maybe I do, but I think he might need me in his life in Jesus' name. Amen.

Number one, let's go through it again. Number one, invite God into your moments. Number two, trust God beyond understanding. Submit fully to God's word. What would our lives look like? What would your life look like a year from now if you were totally set apart, obedient, live clean, full integrity, no lying, fully trusting, clean, emotionally, purity sexually, all of it? What would your life look like from a year from now? I can tell you this. Amazing.

What if we were totally surrendered? God, my business is your business. God, my promotion is your promotion. God, my life is your life. God, my house is your house. God, my investment is your investment. God, my marriage is your marriage, my singleness is in your hands, God, that you've already matched me with somebody else that you already love, because you're single and you're waiting and you don't want to force it and you don't want to play the field because you already know what that's going to do to your heart.

What would your life look like? Amazing. Self-fulfilling because God fulfills it. It would be revolutionary if we just obeyed God as a church. Every one of us individually. God, I am a vessel. I am a vessel. Use me, use me, use me. Close your eyes and bow your heads with me.

How many of you here today say yes, use me? I'm a vessel. Raise your hand. I'm a vessel. Use me. I'm a vessel. Put your hand down. Good. Father, you see all the hands. You know the heart. You know the heartbeat behind that. Father, we love you. We bless you. We give you the glory, the praise, and the honor in the name of Jesus.

Today, God is speaking to your heart right now, and you're wrestling. There is a Jacob wrestling moment with God. The Bible says that God wrestled with Jacob all night, and he said, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." And he wrestled and he touched his hip, and his hip went out of joint, and he never walked the same again because he wrestled with God.

And you don't come out of wrestling with God without being different. Right now, I can sense there is a wrestling moment going on in the room today. You will never be the same until you finally tap and say, "God, I surrender." That would mean your whole life, that would mean salvation. That would mean the wonder of the working blood touching your life, cleansing you of sin.

Called today, we call it the sinner's prayer, being born again. That your old has passed, the new has begun. It's the difference between heaven and hell. There is only two places. There is heaven and there is a hell. They both exist. There's no reincarnation. You don't get to come back one more time and do this over. You're not going to become a tree.

I told you this before, you're not a spirit animal and come back as a spirit animal. You're not going to be hovering over us when you die and when you pass. There is eternity. God has created eternity in heaven for people who surrender their lives to him, and he's already created it for you. In the Bible says, "In my Father's house are many mansions." He's got a place for you.

Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." In this moment right here at this time, with all the distractions and all the notifications, all the football scores are off. Don't waste your time. Start looking at eternity. At the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. You want to invite him into your life. You want to surrender your life to him.

Because God so loved the world that he gave, and he gave his one and only son. So if that's you from the front row to the back row, from the left side to the right side, anybody online or anybody in overflow or sitting in another section of this auditorium here today, if you're ready to give your life to Jesus, if you want to be born again, if you want to rededicate your life to the Lord because you backslid, if you've been riding this emotional roller coaster of a walk with God, if you've been a yo-yo, you've been up and down and up and down and you're ready to get God Jesus, you want to be solid right now, if that's you today, get ready to raise your hand at the count of three.

I'm going to count to three. I'm going to go one, two, three. When I say three, that's the wrestling point right here that you've got to overcome, the part that says, "I want my will rather than God's will." This is the place right here where you overcome. On the count of three. One, he will never let you down. Two, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Here we go. One, two, three. Put your hand up if that's you. One, two, three. God bless you. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five. I see that hand. Twenty-six right there. Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one up there. Thirty-two over there. Thirty-three right before me. Thirty-five, thirty-six, and thirty-seven. God bless you. Thirty-eight and thirty-nine, and forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty right there. Fifty-one over there. Fifty-two right here. Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one.

Come on, sixty-one people just raised their hand. Come on, let's give God some praise. Sixty-one people. Put your hand down and celebrate. Sixty-one people and one in overflow just gave their lives to Jesus. Let's go. Hallelujah.

All right, I want all sixty-one people and everybody else in this room to repeat after me. Say, "Jesus, today I surrender. I give you my life. Thank you for dying on the cross, shedding your blood that washes my sins as white as snow. I also thank you that when I die, I'll be in your presence for all eternity. But while I'm here, be my strength and my hope in my ever-present time of need. You're my God, and I'm your child. The old has passed, the new has begun. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus, created to serve you and to bring you glory. In Jesus' name I pray," and everybody said, amen. Come on, can we thank the Lord, everybody?

Guest (Female): What a powerful word. Come on, somebody. If that stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, rate it, and let us know how God is speaking to you through these messages. We believe your best days are ahead, and we're honored to be part of the journey.

For sermon notes, leadership tools, coaching resources, and more, visit MikeKai.tv. Stay inspired, stay planted, and stay ready because God's not done with you yet. Until next time, God bless you and aloha.