About Friday Night

I gave the message from John 3:1-21 Friday Night and it was a wonderful experience for me...I hope it was helpful to those who attended as well. If you missed it and want to, you can listen to it on-line at hopechapelmaui.com under Friday sermons posted by Wednesday of this coming week. The auditorium was pretty packed out as I talked about God's love for us. When I was growing up I never really experienced the love of God for myself because I thought God was more like a concept that may or may not actually exist depending on what you believed. In other words, I thought God was something people sort of made up like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny! It wasn't until much later in my life, around 30 years old, that I actually read the words of Jesus for myself and realized what He was really saying. In John Chapter 3 a man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. This man was a Pharisee, part of the religious ruling class during the time of Jesus. He begins to chat with Jesus and Jesus goes right to Nicodemus' heart and tells Nicodemus that the answer to all his questions (before Nicodemus had even asked any) is this..."you must be born again..." It is the same answer Jesus gives each of us that no matter what the question is you have to go through a new birth...a spiritual re-birth. Jesus says this new birth will then allow you to actually see His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. Our hearts are simply not open to His Kingdom until we are born-again. I experienced this re-birth almost 30 years ago and have since experienced the very real presence and love of God in my life. The relationship has not always been fun and games, often it has been very painful as God has humbled me and shown me the not so pretty truth about myself. I have struggled to be obedient to His desires for my life and have often times come under His hand of loving discipline. But, through all the years, God has continued to reveal Himself to me in a deeper and more profound way and our love relationship has continued to grow. Nicodemus asked Jesus how does this new spiritual re-birth that allows you to enter your Kingdom take place? And Jesus told Nicodemus that He [Jesus] would be lifted up by the Father (just like Moses lifted the bronze serpent up in the desert on a pole to save the children of Israel from dying from snake bite) on the cross to die for the sins of the world and all who looked upon Him [Jesus] would enter His Kingdom and be given the gift of eternal life. It is simple but costly! Jesus' perfect life would be given for our failures, brokenness, and sins...paying the price for those things... which is separation from God and giving us entrance by faith in what Christ has done for us into the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life. Many religious people try to make it complicated, but it's not...it's just Jesus and His love...He just wants to give us the gift and asks us do you want to be born again? The answer to that question is between Him [Jesus] and ourselves. Of course, it is my prayer that each of us would answer yes to God, yes to His gift, yes to His pardon, yes to eternal life. I hope and pray your day is a blessed one...one that draws you closer to the love of God in Christ and the peace that passes understanding, knowing that you are firmly in His Almighty hands. Thank you so much for your love and prayers that sustain me each day and keep praying for that miracle healing...that God would allow me to stay longer here on earth with my family, friends and loved ones...working for the Lord until He takes me home.

Love forever and still overwhelmed by yours!
kit

Loving God With All Your Mind seminar CD's (for the brainiacs who want empirical evidence for God's existence) are still available by contacting john.hazdovac@hopechapelmaui.com and giving him a mailing address)