Sunday School 9:00 am — Morning Service 10:15 am — Evening Service 6:00 pm — Wednesday Evening 7:00 pm
Pastor Kent Hobi
"I've found myself to be a very needy person! How about you? But have you ever wondered what would be my greatest need? I suppose depending on what age I thought about that question I could come up with any number of superfluous answers. It seems that needs fluctuate according to the current pressing deadline. There is one deadline that all of humanity will face. That deadline is the moment when we all will draw our last breath. The Bible teaches that God has asked and answered our question in light of this deadline that we all share!
"God's Word confronted me with the fact that my greatest need is my sin problem. This certainly is not something that I would see in myself, but thankfully God knows me better than I know myself. In light of my final deadline my need is that I would stand before an absolutely holy God in the filthy rags of my own sin. For God this could not do and thankfully He did something about it! The Bible teaches that you and I have done wrong things (Romans 3:23). It calls these things sin. Because God is perfect and without sin, He is left the job of punishing us for our sin (Romans 6:23). But God, because of his love for all of us was willing to punish His own Son, Jesus Christ instead of us (Romans 5:8). Jesus, who never did anything wrong, is our substitute! Since Jesus took our punishment when He died on the cross, God is satisfied and can really forgive us. He promises to never remember our sins against us again if we simply tell God that we are sinners and we recognize that we have put Him in a difficult spot because He must judge us for our sin. We must thank Him for sending His Son Jesus to take our punishment, to be our substitute. We then must tell God that we receive Jesus as our Savior (He saved us from God's punishment) and that we want Jesus (who rose again from the dead and is with God now in heaven) to be in charge of our lives. You can do this anywhere and at any time. I did this when I was nine years old! I told God I was a sinner and received Jesus as my Savior and Master of my life, a life that I had already messed up. That sounds young, but I know very clearly that it was that moment that I realized that my sin was my greatest problem resulting in my greatest need. How about you? Will you agree with God and admit that your sin is your greatest problem and that God put Jesus Christ to death on a cross so he could be your substitute and die in your place?"
Kent Hobi, an Assistant Pastor, grew up in Mentor, graduated from Mentor Christian School, and received his BS in Education in 1992. After teaching for five years, the Lord led him to Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his Master of Divinity in 2001.
While attending seminary, Kent spent his summers working as the Program Director at Peniel Bible Camp. Kent and his wife, Gloria, have three sons: Luke, Nathan, and Seth. Gloria is active in the music ministry at Grace. She leads the children's choir, assists our music committee and accompanies on the piano.
You can email Pastor Kent at KentHobi@gracechurchmentor.org.