If you’ll put on the spiritual hat, a develop a vibrant relationship with God, if you’ll put on the marriage hat and develop a vibrant relationship with your husband, and then put on the parent hat and decide that your main goal as a mother is to dedicate your children back to God, then and only then will you become successful when it comes to the mother’s load, then and only then will you be able to say, because of God, I’ve truly hit the mother load.

There are so many distractions in our lives that it can be difficult to focus on what matters most. Often those distractions start off as simple things and morph into more complex things. What we learn from this weeks message is that we need to rid them out of our lives.

Each day as we follow Christ we are faced with a choice, to follow Him, or our own selfish desires. Much like the Kings of the Old Testament, we often tempted to choose the wrong thing. The question we have to answer is “who is the King of our hearts?"

You’ll never find fulfillment, you’ll never find fruitfulness in ministry until you find ministry that matches your God-given shape; what experiences has God brought you through, that not only is He working for good, but He wants to use them to minister to the people around you. And once you discover how God has made you, once you discover the hand you’ve been dealt, the final step is to push all the chips into the middle of the table and say, God I’m All in. I’m going to use what you’ve given to me to serve others for your glory.

God has a unique plan for your life, and He’s given you a unique shape to fulfill that plan. He’s given you a unique personality. There’s nobody in the world just like you. But please understand, you’ll never find fulfillment, you’ll never find fruitfulness in ministry until you find ministry that matches your God-given shape; that matches your personality. Are you a talker, a feeler, a thinker or a doer? And once you discover how God has made you, that’s when you’ve got to push all the chips into the middle of the table and say, God I’m All in. I’m going to get off the bench and get into the game and use what you’ve given to me to serve others for your glory.

You're the only person on earth who can use your specific, God-given Abilities as part of God’s purpose for you, and those impacted through you for such a time as this. Will you say, God I’m ALL IN!

Decide this week that you’re going to look for opportunities to serve God in a way that matches your heart. What do you love to do? What are you passionate about? If you could do anything for God and not fail, what would you do? Decide today to push all the chips into the middle of the table and say, I’m all in.

Every Christian has at least one gift. We’ll never fully understand serving God and serving others until we understand how God has gifted us spiritually. This series is called, “All In” So the challenge is, decide today that you’re going to push all the chips into the middle of the table and say, God, I’m all in. I’m going to take the spiritual gifts that you have given to me and I’m going to look for ways throughout the week to put it into practice. I’m going to look for ways to serve God by serving others.

When we look at how Jesus lived His life, you will notice that he spent a lot of time in prayer. Jesus prayed with focus, fervor, and very frequently. He modeled that for you and I, but the question is, do we pray as often as we should?

Our mission is to joyfully join God in ministry and serve the needs of others expecting nothing in return. Our mission is to follow the example of Jesus, and get out our seat and get into the game. And the question is, have you left the sidelines and jumped into the game yet?

An important step for us to be “All In” our relationship with Christ is to recognize the things we place above Him. In other words, we struggle with how to prioritize what it means to give up our own way and “carry our cross” and follow Him daily.

When was the last time you were totally “All In” on something? Meaning 100% sold out with nothing getting in your way. Not with just your words, but your time, attention, and focus? It’s often difficult for us to be “All In” because we have so many things distracting us from what’s often the most important.

As the series “New Year New You” concludes, we are going to look at our last core value of “Relational Evangelism”. To be honest, this core believe may be one of the hardest for Christians to put into practice. However, the command given to us by Jesus to go and tell is vitally important.

Our job as a church, our job is to knock down all the barriers, all the stumbling block that get in the way, and be as relevant as we can possibly be so that when people come in here, they find hope. Life’s not hopeless, you don’t have to give up and quit. You don’t have to be a quitter. No, we’re going to be as relevant as we can possibly be, so that people can come in here and bump into Jesus, so that Jesus can do what only Jesus can do in their lives.

The next step to a New You in the New Year is decide today, that you’re going to take a step of faith and use your time, talent and treasures to make a difference in the world for the glory of God. Join us by using what God has given you to create a space where lost and broken people can meet with Jesus and work out their stuff. Take a step of faith and join us in something bigger than yourself, and if you’ll take that step, Trust me, it’ll change your life.

Grace is a different kind of church, and understand we’re not perfect, we mess up all the time, but we will continue to pursue authentic, transparent community. As a church today, what if we decided that we’re going to lay down our sin and lay down our stones and say to each other, I got your back! Because the next step to a New You in the New Year is to realize that we’re all in this together, we need each other and success happens when we’re an authentic transparent community.

The Bible actually teaches when Jesus went to the cross and paid our debt, He paid it to the full. 100%. And the most important step to a New You in the New Year is now all we have to do is accept the gift, put our faith in Jesus alone as Savior. Because, never forget, Salvation is by Grace alone, through Christ alone.

Follow Jesus + Read the Bible = A Better Life.  The Bible provides us with a place, a foundation if you will to stand.  What will you be standing on when the trials of life happen. You see the 1st step to a New You in the New Year is will you decide to live under the authority of God’s Word?  Can we resolve right now as a community of people that this is where we’re going to stand?

A question that is often asked by parents is “how do we center our home on Jesus?” If we are all honest, that can be a difficult question to answer, especially considering the varying stages kids can be in.  The crucial thing for anyone asking this question, is to take that bold step of faith. If this is a question you are asking, Gary and Meg have a few tips to get you started! Check this out!!

The Foster care and Adoption world is something that many aren’t too familiar with. But did you know that adoption is something that’s close to God’s heart? In fact, in Romans 8, Paul reminds us that Christians are the adopted sons and daughters of God! That makes me mindful that those families who are in this system are near to God’s heart too. Check out this podcast with Matt and Melanie Rocha and hear how God is using their family!

Getting involved in serving can be difficult to do. The time commitment alone makes things hard, but when you add in your entire family, it compounds it. Dave and Kristi have made it a focus for their family to serve together and believe you can do that too! Take a listen to what they have to share!

There are so many questions that surround mental health. Lately, we’ve been getting more questions about mental health when dealing with the family unit -- in particular, children. In this podcast, we’ve invited one of our team members, Susan Sheidy (a Clinical Therapist), to talk about some important areas parents are seeking answers for. Check it out!

On some level, every parent feels imperfect. I think the reality is that no parent is perfect. But I think in our imperfections, we are more open to learning from others who’ve gone before us. In this podcast, I talk with Dave and Julia Benson on the things they’ve learned, mistakes they’ve made, and other tips for parents to learn. Check it out!

Families that have Special Needs children often feel isolated and alone. Most, if not everyone, would say that they do not want this to be the case. In this podcast, we do an interview with Chelsea Kelosky discussing her families Special Needs journey AND some tips and tools to help them not feel so alone. Check it out!

Marriages take a lot of work. There are years of habits and past experiences that need to be worked on throughout the years. However, things often get complicated when children are added. In a lot of cases, couples neglect their covenant of marriage in sacrifice to their kids. But God's perspective (and studies) show that a healthy marriage benefits kids on so many levels. Find out more here!

I think it's safe to say we all want to be good parents. In fact, we want to be great parents. The toughest part is creating HEALTHY discipline for yourself, your spouse, and your children. If we can do this well, we set up our kids future for success.

Do you ever feel like there isn't enough hours in a day? Between kids activities, work commitments, and the daily chaos of life it feels like there isn't any time to REST! The crazy thing, as Christians, God gives us this beautiful gift of Sabbath. The question is, will you take him at His Word and find rest? Check out this episode!

It is so easy, as parents, to get discouraged. There are so many things that we try and juggle, moments where we feel we let our kids down, or that we aren't enough. In this podcast we discuss that we are in good company and we can get some encouragement. Check it out

We've all heard the adage 'history repeats itself." But what we sometimes forget is that our family history and past pain can rear its ugly head too. This episode we will discuss some ideas to consider and the hope the Jesus offers.

Parents face many challenges. One is discovering how to protect their kids from the dangers of this world. As Christians, who happen to be parents, we have to address how to raise our kids in a Secular world. This episode serves as a way to start that conversation.

It is so easy for anyone to fall into the trap of comparison. The hard part is that it robs us of our joy. In this busy life that surrounds our families, comparison is the last thing we need. Check out this episode.

Every child is different. Every family is different. But one thing that is consistent is the changes and phases they go through. Based off our Orange Curriculum, we discuss the importance of recognizing that "It's just a phase!"

When you start a family, so often we can feel like we are alone. But we were meant to do life in COMMUNITY. In this episode, we discuss the importance of who we surround our family with.

In those moments when you feel like things are not okay, you're not alone. It's okay to not be okay. But we can't stay that way. This episode gives us some helpful tips to move forward!