By putting our faith in Jesus, we are brought from a place of ultimate and eternal darkness, into a place of ultimate and eternal light, and our eyes often strain to adjust.

Scripture:  Romans 5:1-11

If you spend a portion of your money, you’ll have less money. If you spend a portion of your time, you’ll have less time. They’re zero-sum games. But there are some things that can’t be sliced like a pie. We’ve discussed how to play some of the the zero-sum games of life, but what about the non-zeroes?

Scripture:Gal 5:22-23, Mt 18:21-35, Luke 6:27-38

Desire is zero-sum game. As the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh once said, “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” The room in your heart is finite. There’s only so much of it. We need a strategy to decide what we give our hearts to, and how we spend our heart’s capacity.

Scripture: Psalm 37:4, Col 3:1-2, Phil 4:8, Prov 4:23-27

Money is a brutal zero-sum game, because it’s rigid. 100 pennies always equals $1… and if you spend 40, you’ll always have 60 left. These rules don’t bend. Money elbows in. Never staying in it’s own lane, it wants a voice in every corner of your life. It wants our hearts. That’s why everyone needs a biblically informed strategy to play this high-stakes zero-sum game.

Scripture: Matt 6:24, Prov 18:10-11, Prov 13:22, Prov 11:28

Of all the zero-sum games we play, time is the most ruthless. It doesn’t slow down for people in a desperate hurry, or speed up for those in agony. It just marches on. It can’t be borrowed, stolen, or cheated — 24 hours a day for each of us, no exceptions. Every second of every day is a gift from God, and there’s nothing more spiritually significant than how you spend that time.

Scripture: Proverbs 21:5, Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 12:24

Remember splitting the oatmeal cream pie at school lunch? It had to be even! Otherwise, your friend would take the bigger half. Remember the top hat stopping on Boardwalk? It meant that your stack of Monopoly money was about to grow or disappear. And who hasn’t lost a few minutes of childhood trying to fly solo on a seesaw? The only way to go up is if the other end goes down.

Scripture: Acts 2:42

Sometimes we experience pain and are able to continue on as before. But sometimes it clings to us. It sticks in our eyes and changes the way we see the world…and sometimes it gets all the way to our hearts.

Scripture: Matthew 6:22-33

Advent is a season of longing for the second coming of Jesus. Even in Jesus’ first coming, he was pointing to his second. The angels, the manger, the shepherds, the wise men… they were all pointing to Jesus’ final and triumphant return. And yet, it still hasn’t come. Why does the waiting persist?

Scripture: Isaiah 60:16-22, 2 Peter 3:8-9, John 6:39

There are so many voices this time a year that we have to be intentional about hearing God’s voice. Because it’s only when we hear God speak into our lives that we can experience the true comfort and peace that we long for all year long.

Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-9, Romans 8:2, John 8:36, Galatians 5:1 (ESV)