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Who Is God? - Episode 1
326 Plays2 years ago
Come listen to our first ever episode where we talk about God's love, faithfulness, and loyalty!
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Transcript
Introduction to Gains and God Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone. Welcome to the first ever episode of the gains and God podcast. Um, today we're going to be talking about, uh, who is God. Uh, this podcast is really just going to be a way for us to, um, teach people, uh, about what God is like, uh, how he's changed our lives. And yeah, so I should probably introduce you to my co-host. Hi, I'm Monica Pearlick.
00:00:26
Speaker
Okay. My name is Jacob Ross. I'm sorry. I forgot. I forgot to say that at the beginning. We're, we're new to this. Okay. A little bit of background. Um, this is not my first ever podcast. Um, if you guys ever want to go back and look on Spotify, uh, the rest of my case podcast, uh, was a thing back in the day. I wasn't about God. It was about sports, but just don't give it a listen. It's not going to be anything to write home about.
Vision for the Podcast: A Beginner's Guide to Faith
00:00:52
Speaker
So yeah, Anika, you want to talk about a little vision we have for the podcast? Yeah, so this is kind of going to be a place, a platform for people who are beginners in faith, really, or really anyone truly. But if you're a beginner in your faith, if you're just walking, if you're kind of just exploring, you know, what is this like God thing? What is like faith look like? If you've had a past with like religion and like it hasn't been your thing, it's like,
00:01:20
Speaker
Anything like that, if you just really want to explore who God is, this is your place and you are all welcome here. And this is just gonna be a time and place where you can just listen and get to know kind of who God is and what it looks like to walk in faith.
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a big thing. It's one thing to be religious. It's another thing to really walk in the spirit and exude God throughout your everyday life. Yeah, for sure. Two totally different things. So hopefully, our main goal is to try to lead you guys.
Hosts' Journey: Learning Alongside Listeners
00:01:57
Speaker
And then in that way, we're also leading ourselves because a lot of the stuff, we would be the first people to tell you that we are not faith experts. No, no, no.
00:02:08
Speaker
We are still learning. I am no better than any other person. Sometimes I don't even feel worthy to be doing a podcast, but it's God's plan for my life and this is where we are right now. A little way that this started, it's kind of a funny story actually.
Virtual Bonding: A Shared Vision
00:02:30
Speaker
So me and Annika have never met in person.
00:02:34
Speaker
Uh, it's kind of weird. We've never ever met in person. Um, but we've really just kind of bonded over, um, God. And we've had a lot of conversations, uh, about what faith looks like about different scripture. And it's always been her vision to start a podcast and it just ended up really working out that I had already done a podcast. So working together on this one.
00:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be awesome. And so posting schedules, you got that.
Podcast Structure: Exploring Key Questions
00:03:09
Speaker
We're thinking as of right now to post biweekly. We don't know really what day yet, but if there's going to be a certain time that we're publishing this and releasing it out to you guys.
00:03:21
Speaker
We are planning to do biweekly, so every other week. But the structure of each video is we're just going to focus on three different questions, three topics or to the topic that we're going to talk about. And today we're talking about who is God.
Divine vs Human Love: Exploring God's Perfect Love
00:03:37
Speaker
And we have three little questions that we're just going to look at, which is the first one being, what does God's love look like? And we think that's a really important question because
00:03:49
Speaker
really when we think of God and think of who God is, we think of love, right? Because God is love and love is God. We as humans fail to kind of have that. We fail when thinking of the word love because we are unperfect, we are flawed, and we can't love perfectly. But God who is perfect and divine, he has that love over us and shares that with us.
00:04:15
Speaker
So when we think of love from one another, a person to person, a parent, a friend, that fails because we're humans and we as humans are flawed. And so that love is flawed, but with God, that love is perfect and it's divine.
Manifestation of Divine Love: Actions Over Words
00:04:33
Speaker
and I think that it's really important that we hit on God's love like that because It's perfect and God loves us so much And I think it's so cool because God doesn't just say that he loves us. It's not a sit-down Conversation like he doesn't just like show up right in front It's gonna be like oh my daughter my son like I love you like no he acts on it That's why he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us. He acts on it like that
00:05:00
Speaker
Um, so one thing that I really think about, um, when talking about love is that like this worldly love will never ever, um, fill that hole in your heart. Um, I heard, I've heard people talk about like, like there's a God size hole in your heart that only God will fulfill. Um,
00:05:17
Speaker
Like once you really learn to feel that love from him like your life will change completely and like for the better So Annika has a couple of verses that she's gonna share with us.
Crucifixion Story: Faith and Love
00:05:28
Speaker
So yeah, so really when I think about a story or an example of where God really shows his love it's in Luke 23 and where
00:05:41
Speaker
Jesus is about to be crucified at the cross and he is with two sinners. He's with two criminals and they have done some really bad things. And anyways, one is on the left and one is on the right. And one of the criminals who hung there, throwed insults and basically said, aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. That is what one of the criminals said. And he had no faith. He was like, well, if you really are who you say you are, then show it, prove the world, prove to me and save me with you.
00:06:11
Speaker
while the other one on the other side of him rebuked him and said, don't you fear God? He said, since you are under the same sentence, we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. And then Jesus, and then he said to Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said,
00:06:31
Speaker
Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. And I think that is so crazy and that really just shows God's love for us because it is not acts that give us, that get us for Jesus to love us back. Like it is truly our faith and our faith alone that
00:06:50
Speaker
Jesus loves us for, and Jesus loves us regardless, but he shows our love by just simply being, you know? He doesn't set these standards that we have to do and fulfill for, we don't have to work for God's love, it's already there. And he shows that in this verse, he's like, because all that guy, all that criminal did was just say like, oh, you are God, I believe that you are the son of Christ. And he was like, okay, yeah, well, you will be with me then.
00:07:18
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And that's so cool just because like this guy, I mean, he was being crucified and like we all know that like Jesus, um, he was supposed to be crucified, but he didn't do anything wrong to be crucified. Um, but this guy lived, I mean,
00:07:35
Speaker
a very sinful life and actually deserved to be crucified. And this whole life of sin was taken away from him in minutes by talking to Jesus. And he can do that in anyone's life. All it takes is one encounter. It's so cool. I love that.
John 3:16: Understanding God's Love
00:08:01
Speaker
And then also another verse that I think really resonates, jumping into John then, John 3, 16, it's,
00:08:14
Speaker
And that is literally, that is love itself. That is love. That is exactly what we were talking about in Luke that happened. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life. That is love. Jesus died for us. He died for our sins. God gave his son to the world, a perfect man named Jesus, because we as humans are sinful. He gave the world,
00:08:44
Speaker
Jesus to wear and wear the sin that we deserve or that we don't deserve But Jesus took that sin upon himself so that we could live with him forever when he died He fulfilled God's promises and we now get to live a life Eternally with God if we believe in Jesus Christ that he was the Son of God and I think that's so powerful that's so cool and The craziest thing is that
00:09:15
Speaker
That is the greatest act of
Ultimate Sacrifice: Jesus's Love for Humanity
00:09:17
Speaker
love. If you want to talk about love, that is the greatest ever act of love that's ever happened. I mean, who else in this world has given or died for you? Literally, who else has died for you? No one. So then why wouldn't you put your trust in him? Exactly.
00:09:38
Speaker
He was on the cross dying with you on his mind. That is love. That is not something. And like Jacob said, the Jesus size hole, the void, like that is something only God can feel. Humans will fail. People will fail. Whether it's like friendship, you know, friends, you know, you know how be, but like.
00:09:59
Speaker
You get in fights like it happens and like there's stuff like they disappoint you. People disappoint. People will always fail you. But God, God will not fail. God loves and he is love. He is the definition of love. If he created love for us to have, for us to endure, don't you think that it had to come from the source of God himself to give it to us?
00:10:23
Speaker
Like, that's the definition of love. And you can't love someone else. I'm just gonna say you can't love someone else without knowing God's love. You can't, I should say you can't love someone properly when you don't know what God's love truly is. And the more that you learn God, the more that you will love yourself, the more that you will love others, your friends, your family, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, future husband and wife, like the more love that you will have. And it is so
00:10:52
Speaker
It's so beautiful. Yeah, it's so cool. The thing that God has really like, his love has been revealed to me through like, like me trying to love the world. And the more, the more that you love the world, like the more that you realize that like, like, if you can see how God loved the world and love the church,
00:11:19
Speaker
Uh, it will really just teach you so much about how to love and like, um, how to love like God does. So yeah. All right. I love that. I love that. And that, and yeah, we'll just, yeah, leave it at that. Leave it at that. I think that was good. Okay. And then moving into the next question, what does God's forgiveness look like?
Forgiveness Rooted in Love: Accessibility for Believers
00:11:44
Speaker
I also think that, um, God's love is just.
00:11:48
Speaker
The most amazing thing he has for us, right? He produced us out of love. He created us out of love. He created the world and everything that we have in this world because he loved us. And that's amazing, but also forgiveness. He loves us so much that he forgives us, right? And that's crazy to me because we have a God who is perfect, who is divine, who just is absolutely perfect.
00:12:12
Speaker
He is a definition of perfect and he is willing to forgive someone like you and me. It's beyond me. It's the literal definition of love. I love that.
00:12:24
Speaker
When talking about God's forgiveness, it's so applicable to everyday life. I can't think of a single day where I haven't sinned in this world, and yet God forgives us. I have to almost humble myself every single day.
00:12:43
Speaker
how many times I separate myself from God, how many times I try to get farther away from God, yet he's always right there and forgiving, like, oh, I forgive you, I forgive you. Isn't that just insane? Yeah, he's the perfect father. His forgiveness comes out of a place of love, which is, we've already talked about God's love. He's always,
00:13:12
Speaker
teaching you things to correct your sin. He wants to help you and he wants to be there for you in your sinful ways. And he will guide you and deliver you through his forgiveness. And without God's forgiveness, everyone lives just horrible lives.
00:13:34
Speaker
like we separate ourselves like okay I heard this in church I think it was a couple months ago but our pastor talked about if you sin like let's say let's say you sin three times a day
00:13:47
Speaker
three, only three times. And I don't, I could think of like, I sin so much more than that every single day. But if you sin, um, three times a day, if you live till you're 70 years old, like you're going to have sinned over a hundred thousand times in your life, you're going to a hundred thousand times, you've separated yourself from God. And yet every single time I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's just so cool. It's incredible.
00:14:13
Speaker
that we have like an actual father, an actual God, an actual being just omnipresent in every single room and every single moment he hears us and sees us. And he is like, every time you sin, every time you fall, it's not out of a place of anger. It's like, oh, thank you for coming back to me. Thank you for acknowledging your sin. Thank you for seeing that. Let me change you. Let me make your life better. Because really sin, if we're talking about sin,
00:14:41
Speaker
I think honestly just sin is natural to humans I mean starting back to Adam and Eve when with the Apple incident like I mean, I hope that Apple was good by the way I'm sure I was really good. They said they said that tree was the best so Besides the point besides the point it's humans nature that we we as humans are sinners and we need to
00:15:09
Speaker
We need a God who loves and forgives us. And luckily we have that. And Jesus was sent down by God to forgive us of our sins. And he died on the cross so that we could live eternity with him.
Limitless Forgiveness: Divine vs Human Capacity
00:15:25
Speaker
Like, that's beautiful. And that's actually crazy that you said that story because that kind of relates to the verse that I'm going to be sharing with you, which is Matthew 18, 21 through 22.
00:15:38
Speaker
And it says, then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brothers and sisters to sin against me up to seven times? And Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but 77 times, which is really crazy that I feel like is very similar to that story.
00:15:59
Speaker
And there's some translations. It's not about the number of 77, right? And there's some translations. Don't quote me on this because I didn't, I don't remember. I didn't look it up. I feel like there's one that says like 70 times 70 and or something like that, but it's not about the 77 number. It's not like.
00:16:17
Speaker
this person comes and you're counting, oh, that's one, two, three, four. No, it's not like that. But it's the fact that it's just like, 77's a high enough number where it's like, you know that you're not supposed to be counting. It's endless forgiveness. And if Jesus is telling Peter this, if Jesus is, who is a rabbi, Jesus is the teacher, the rabbi. And if the teacher is telling Peter this, it is coming from a place of love
00:16:46
Speaker
education. Oh, there goes my alarm. My bad. Sorry about that. You're good. And Jesus is telling Peter this as a place to teach him that you need to forgive others. And if he's teaching that Jesus has to have that in himself showing that Jesus is a forgiving person, and that also we must forgive like Jesus forgives us. Yeah. And like, that's almost like
00:17:15
Speaker
Like sometimes I think about like, okay, I want to be more forgiving. I want to be more forgiving. And then I think about a situation where I forgave someone once and I'm like, wow. Like it really, it really does humble me and like, think like, like I think I'm a good person for forgiving that person once. Like that's not even like scratching the surface of God's forgiveness.
00:17:38
Speaker
Um, so I just think that's so special. It's so cool. Um, yeah. Did you have any other verses for that? I can't remember. Yeah. I had one more. It's from Ephesians, uh, four 32 and five through two. I think it is, but it says be kind and compassionate.
00:17:56
Speaker
to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ God forgave you. Follow God's example, therefore is dearly loved children and walk in the way of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." So kind of referring back to that, like how we should be acting as Jesus
00:18:22
Speaker
teaches us to act. You know, Jesus is loving, Jesus is forgiving, and that's setting an example of how we as followers of Christ should act and set as an example in our lives too.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's so good. And I don't even think I can follow that up because you just kind of hit the nail on the head with that one. God's forgiveness is just unlike anything that we know in this world. But I'm going to move us on to our final question.
God's Loyalty: Ecclesiastes 3 and Life's Seasons
00:18:53
Speaker
What does God's loyalty look like? And if anyone, like this is, Annika knows that this is my favorite.
00:19:04
Speaker
like I talk about this probably like once a week and it comes out of Ecclesiastes 3 and I just try to tell everyone about this because like the first time I heard this and it wasn't that long ago because I hadn't tapped into I hadn't tapped into Ecclesiastes like there is some good stuff in there
00:19:22
Speaker
But now I've been fully exposed to it and it's, it has changed my life. This, this couple of verses like, um, really has taught me a lot about God's loyalty. So Ecclesiastes three, it's headed a time for everything. Um, there's a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build.
00:19:49
Speaker
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. And if you keep reading throughout this, it just kind of goes along with that pattern for former verses. But if that doesn't talk about how loyal God can be to us, he literally tells us that not everything will be good in this life. Not everything will be
00:20:15
Speaker
It's earth, it's not heaven. There's gonna be sin, there's gonna be trials, but he's never gonna leave your side. And he tells us, I meant for this to happen. And nothing ever goes past God. He allows everything to happen. So when you say there truly is a time to be born and a time to die, not even just a physical death and a physical birth,
00:20:43
Speaker
Like there's a time to be born again in the spirit. Um, there's a time to plant at a time to uproot. Like, uh, there will be times where you go through trials and it feels like you're being uproot from like your life. Like stuff changes a lot. Um, but there's a, there's a time for everything. That's where I was trying to go with that. So yes, there is.
00:21:06
Speaker
And God's shows his loyalty through that, you know, like Jacob was just saying, it's like incredible, you know, he takes situations and turns them around. And sometimes we don't know where that's going. We may not know where the end is.
00:21:21
Speaker
the tunnel is so dark and we keep getting told that there's light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is so long, you just don't know. But we know that we have a father who will get us through. We know that we have a father holding our hand that is there with us and will bring us through this tunnel. Single-handedly, he pulls us through and he shows this loyalty over and over again. And it's sometimes he gives us situation, circumstances,
00:21:47
Speaker
in times that are so hard like trust me we know this we know this from experience but um we there there's times where it's so heavy and so hard and um god really works that out for the good you know we may not see it now we may not see it in a few weeks we honestly may never see it until heaven we may not know and some things are just unknowing but we have to have that faith
00:22:14
Speaker
that God is working things out for our good because He knows us.
Gratitude and Small Blessings: Recognizing God's Loyalty
00:22:18
Speaker
He knows what we need. And even if we're in like hard situations, there's still, He gives us blessings so many times that we just overlook, right? Like, and honestly,
00:22:29
Speaker
Going on a little tangent here, but gratitude is so important. It is so important when seeing God's blessings because this shows God's loyalty. Like if he, if we want the big blessings, we have to be thankful for the little blessings. We have to acknowledge the little things in our lives. That's so true. And I'm trying to find out, um,
00:22:51
Speaker
There was literally an example of this like last like little yesterday that I was we were talking about something and then immediately like like there was like a little bit little blessing that showed up. Oh, the radio, the radio. Yeah, but I can't remember what I was talking about. Oh, God. It's going to be an L story if we can't if we can't remember what it is. Dude, what happened? I don't know if it's there. No, it would have been gone by now.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, shoot. Well, anyways. We had a story. We did. Yeah. So basically, this story happened. You got to just trust us. Just trust us. God showed us loyalty. But honestly, when you're looking at the little blessings in life, it's so easy for them to just pass right by you and you don't even
00:23:44
Speaker
get time to appreciate them or notice them. But if you're really just waking up every single day as a blessing, being able to, doing this podcast, this is a blessing from God. I couldn't do this on my own.
00:23:59
Speaker
Yeah, neither could I. But with God's faithless, and we've talked about this a lot, this is kind of nervous, or we're both kind of nervous for this, and sometimes feel unworthy, don't know what to say, don't have enough what to say. But God has really delivered in this blessing that he wants us to do this podcast. Yeah. And I think that's really one of the coolest things.
00:24:25
Speaker
of his loyalty to us and his and just trusting in his plan for our lives. So, yeah, so I think that's. Yeah, it's a really cool example of loyalty. It is. And then referring back to Psalm, then 23. Oh, my gosh, I love this verse by heart. Oh, my gosh, it's so good. But it really does show God's loyalty.
Psalm 23: Guidance and Loyalty of a Divine Shepherd
00:24:49
Speaker
It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his namesake. Even though I walk through the darkest valleys, I fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
00:25:11
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So good. Um, I don't know. No one, no one's gonna be able to see this, but I am literally standing up right now and no, no one's, I know it's a podcast and you can only hear my voice, but I'm standing up right now. I mean, just listen to that first verse. Like the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
00:25:34
Speaker
Like when God is leading your life and when he's showing his loyalty to you, like there's literally nothing, you lack nothing. And it's just unbelievable. Like, I don't know, I still think about that verse probably daily. It really like has changed my view on like feeling unworthy, feeling like you're not good enough. Like, but when you truly have the Lord as your shepherd, like you lack nothing. It's awesome.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah, I love that makes me so excited Yeah, and that also refers them back to like um certain situations, you know when times get uh dark like this um versus referring to even though I walk through The valley the darkest valleys. I fear no evil for you are with me I think that is like the highlight too of this verse and Loyalty like when we are walking through hard times when we cannot carry the weight of life itself because
00:26:29
Speaker
Like life is hard life is hard in life is heavy the world is heavy and but thank God Heaven is not that way, right? We have something to look forward to But But life gets heavy it gets hard and which is referring to the darkest valleys and I fear no evil and
00:26:51
Speaker
because I know that my God is there. I know that Jesus Christ is standing right next to me holding my hand. He is guiding me through it. And even when times are tough, even when we don't know how we're going to get through this, how we're going to get out of this, we know that God is there. We know that God is working things out for our good and that certain circumstances, hard situations will bring self-improvement, you know? The hardest times in life
00:27:21
Speaker
bloom flowers, right? Like things that are hard, things that are dark, like they grow into something beautiful, they grow into something glorious. And that is to glorify Jesus Christ. Glorify Jesus Christ, literally like... When you go through bad things, when you go through the worst thing you could ever imagine and then still be praising God, like that is Jesus Christ. You know that Jesus is alive. You know that he is real.
00:27:51
Speaker
And it's not because of us, it's because of God's loyalty to us. If I had to go through the trials of this world, like if I had to go through the darkest valley by myself, like I would die immediately.
00:28:05
Speaker
It's horrible. I could not imagine. Yeah. So I think that's a great place.
Looking Forward: Encouraging Engagement and Feedback
00:28:11
Speaker
Like there's nothing else that needs to be said except a future episode. We'll probably dive deeper into that. Like some play through, like this is not going to be the last time we'll probably touch on everything that we said over and over again, because these are really like deep, deep things that are really important, I guess. But I could literally talked about for hours and hours on end.
00:28:35
Speaker
And we're shoving it into a 30 minute episode. But this is not the last episode. There's going to be more. Yeah. Stay tuned. And we're going to get better at this. Like this is like, I think we, I think we did good for our first time, but it will, it will only get better. And like, so if you guys have any feedback for us, like if you made it this far in the episode, like if you have any feedback, like, um,
00:28:57
Speaker
We look up our names on Instagram and you can DM us. We're going to make an Instagram page for this podcast soon. So once we have that up, just give us your feedback. Tell us what you like, what you don't like.
00:29:12
Speaker
because we really do want to know this is our first rodeo. And also, if you stayed this long and you enjoyed a little bit, just wait. Just wait. Let the Lord water your soul. Let him grow. Stay with us and really listen to it. If you enjoy just a little bit of this, this is going to get better, like Jacob said. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We're going to get better as this goes on.
00:29:40
Speaker
But yeah, so thank you guys for listening. Um, I appreciate you. Every one of you, if you stayed around this long, like, um, I hope that you learned something from this or you, uh, encourage you in some way. Um, but yeah, episode one, uh, anything you want to say final, final words? Yeah. I mean, uh, I think we touched on most everything, but just a little recap is like,
00:30:04
Speaker
This is who God is. He is for us and he is for every single person in this world and he really truly loves you. And like Jacob and I have mentioned a few times, we feel kind of unworthy to be speaking, like unknowledgeable. We don't have enough experience in this aspect to be talking about God in this way, but we feel called to do this. We have the passion.
00:30:26
Speaker
and it is not our voices that are speaking this, it is spirit-led, it is Jesus Christ himself giving us this information to speak to you. And so we hope that this touched your heart and helped you understand just a little bit more about who God is, that he has so much love, so much forgiveness, and he truly is loyal to you and is there for you every single day. Just call on his name, call on Jesus Christ and he will be there. And yeah, like Jake said, if you have anything that you,
00:30:54
Speaker
have suggestions for us. Let us know if we're going to be building or making an Instagram and we'll do prayer requests too. So yeah, but first episode. Awesome. Uh, that's all we got for today. Um, make sure to come back to episode two and we post it. Um, but it should be coming out soon. And yeah. All right. Awesome. We'll see you guys later. Bye.