It was once said that grace is like the Big Foot of Christianity, everyone is searching for it, but it is very rarely seen. Grace although it is free to us, came at a tremendous cost for God. It cost him his son’s life. Week 4 of the series brings a critical and important message about grace we will examine that will grace doesn’t require us to pay for our sins, it does require us to pay attention to how we live.

Having faith isn’t just about the benefits. In fact more often than not, truly believing in something means we must be willing to carry a burden. In week 3 of this series we will discover that one of the greatest miracles that Jesus ever performed was about more than how it benefited the people, it was about how much we really are committed to what we say we believe.

John records perhaps the most famous verse in the entire Bible when he captures a moment where Jesus makes a bold statement about himself. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” In week 2 of this series we will explore just what it was that God gave us and why it’s worth getting.

Religion can be complicated. In a world where religion is used to justify all sorts of behavior, it is easy to lose sight of what’s important. Perhaps no one understands this more than John. As a disciple of Jesus, John, like the other disciples, learned how to focus on what’s really important. In week one, we will discover that at the very beginning of his book, John wants to make a big point that points us to Jesus.

When it comes to faith, the only sure way to know if we are getting anything out of it is to measure whether or not we are giving any of it away. Taking our faith to the max means taking our faith to the community. In this third and final week of the series we will explore the critical mission of taking our faith to the max by taking our faith to the community.

What goes up must come down. While that may work for the laws of gravity, it almost never works for the laws of spiritual growth. If the Christian faith and the Christian church is going to produce maximum results in our lives, we have to learn how to become rooted and connected in community. In week two of this series we will discover that one of the primary reasons we fail to grow up is that we may have neglected to grow down, and when we commit to becoming connected, our faith will grow exponentially from the inside out.

Since the time we could talk, we were taught as kids to be honest. Honest is always the best policy, especially when it comes to being honest about our own spiritual journey. In week one of this series we will examine the reasons Jesus gives for a lack of spiritual growth, and if we’re courageous enough to be honest, we just may discover that getting more out of our faith requires more out of us

Life with God requires one central idea; God owns everything. When we embrace this idea, we realize that we are simply managers of all that God blesses us with. In the final week of this series we will discover one simple question that we can ask ourselves to help us make better decisions and become better managers of the resources God has blessed us with.