Vivid Church Podcast

Whose money is it, really? In the first message of our new series, House Money, Pastor Dustin Easton opens Matthew 25 and the parable of the bags of gold. Money is emotional, and God has something to say about it.

If you’ve been avoiding your banking app, feeling like a “one bag of gold” person, or struggling with fear or greed, there is hope here. The house always wins, and we get to trust the One who’s building it.

What do you do when the world looks broken and you can’t see what God sees? On Vision Sunday, we share what God is doing across our church and where we’re headed this year. Then we open Habakkuk to learn why the world doesn’t need more complaining Christians, and how to climb the tower, lift our eyes to the horizon, and see where heaven touches earth.

Vision is clarifying, mobilizing, and promising. And the race marked out for us has no finish line. It’s a way of living, so we keep praying, keep praising, and run one more lap together.

Life is long, and so is the race of faith. In this message, we look at Paul’s favorite metaphor, the race, and what it means to run a lifelong journey with Jesus instead of a series of sprints followed by crash-outs.

From the Cliff Young Shuffle to the 1908 Olympic marathon, we see why finishing matters more than starting fast, and why receiving help along the way doesn’t disqualify you.

4 ways to run the long run:

Run like winning matters
Run like the prize is worth it
Run with direction, not just effort
Run against the flow

As long as you have breath in your lungs, you’re not disqualified. You can begin again.

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” — Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Following Jesus is a race of endurance, not a sprint. There will be seasons when we feel weary, when the storms of life feel overwhelming, and when we wonder if we have the strength to keep going. But God never asks us to run on our own strength.

When we put our hope in the Lord, He renews our strength, gives us perspective in the middle of the storm, and reminds us of the purpose He has placed on our lives. As we serve Him and build His church, we must remember that our calling to run is sustained by our personal walk with Jesus. Before we can run with endurance, we need to learn to walk closely with Him.

You don’t have to run alone. Put your hope in the Lord, draw near to Him, and trust that He will give you the strength to keep moving forward.

How can you run and not grow weary? Hope in the Lord. Walk closely with Jesus. Keep running the race He has marked out for you.

You’re not here by accident. There is a race marked out for you, and the goal isn’t to finish as quickly as possible, but to faithfully endure to the end.

Hebrews 12 tells us to throw off everything that hinders us, let go of the sin that entangles us, and run with perseverance. Some things aren’t necessarily sinful, but they’re still weighing us down. Some things have become entanglements that need to be addressed at the root. And all of us are called to embrace endurance when the race gets difficult.

The great cloud of witnesses reminds us: the race is worth it. Don’t stop running.

And we don’t run by comparing our race to someone else’s. We fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He has gone before us, and He is with us when we stumble, giving us the strength to keep going.

Your race may look different than someone else’s. Your pace may be different. Your obstacles may be different. But God has marked out a race for you.

So throw off the weight. Untangle yourself from what holds you back. Stay under the weight when endurance is required. And whatever you do... don’t stop.

The race is worth it.

We have concluded the Books of the Apostle John!

In 2 John and 3 John, John praises their walk, he pleads for their actions and he prays for their prosperity.

Check out this conclusion as we talk about:

1. Truth in Motion

2. Love in Action

3. Life in Prosperity

Find out how John ends his first letter!

This message comes from 1 John chapter 5 and in it, we unpack why the "weirdness" of worship, belief, and love in the church isn't something to apologize for. It's actually where the power of the gospel lives.

1. Keep Worship Weird — give God what He wants, not just what feels comfortable
2. Keep Believing Weird — don't shy away from the "weird" truths of Scripture
3. Keep Loving Weird — love your neighbour without compromising the truth

There's a difference between knowing about love and actually living in it.

1 John 4 says it plainly: "There's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear... because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Fear and love can't both drive. Fear says circumstances dictate your peace, fear demands you prove something before you're accepted, fear recoils and overcompensates. Love says God is present, God is for you, and He's already provided the way through.

The good news in this text: it was never you finding your way to love. "We love because He first loved us." He initiated. He's already faithful, already present, already for you... even in the moments you're not choosing Him well.

And it gets practical fast: if love is hard to extend to people around you, that's not a verdict on your worth, it's just a sign of where you're still maturing. Not a test of whether you're loved, but a test of how well you've received that love in the first place. So the move isn't to fake love harder. The move is to go back to the source: receive His love again, and let it overflow from there.

Because it was never really your love versus your fear. Fear wins that fight every time. It's God's love versus your fear. And your fear has no shot!

Return to how loved you actually are. That's where confidence grows. That's where fear loses its grip. That's what it means to live in love.