Vineyard Church Maryville

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)

We live in the time between the first and second comings of Jesus. We live in the tension of having both ‘hope realized’ and ‘hope deferred.’ We look back and look ahead.

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Christmas is a ‘blended holiday.’ There’s the religious version and the non-religious one. One has baby Jesus as the central figure, the other has Santa. Most of us celebrate a version of both at the same time. Is that ok? Is there another option?

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7

The Biblical tome may be closed, but the stories of what God is doing continue to accumulate. Telling our stories, and listening to the stories of others, sets us up to heal and be healed, to minister and be ministered to, and to better know ourselves, our friends, and our God.

Scripture: John 4, 2 Cor 4: 13-15 (NIV)