Podcast
Pursuing God with Gene Appel
Hosted by Gene Appel · EN
Gene Appel is the senior pastor of Eastside Christian Church, a multi-site church based in Anaheim, California. Since 2008, Gene has led Eastside into multiple seasons of rapid growth and as a result, Eastside has been consistently named among the 100 fastest growing churches in America. Gene’s recipe for success is simple: Pursue God, Build Community, and Unleash Compassion. Eastside’s explosive growth is rooted in a deep conviction that God’s heart and God’s grace is for everyone, resulting in a radically inclusive community of God-conscious “servant leaders” who serve both locally and globally. Join Gene Monday - Friday as he walks you through practical biblical teachings that will foster a deeper connection and awareness of God’s activity and presence in your life. No matter where you are at with your walk with God, this podcast is for everyone.
41episodes
Episodes
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Episode 1277: When It Mattered Most Jesus Trusted Women
Yesterday00:06:00Tap to summarizeRabbis in Jesus' day taught that it was better to burn the Torah than teach it to a woman. Jewish men prayed, thanking God they hadn't been made a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. A devout rabbi wouldn't even speak to a woman in public. And into that world steps Jesus. He speaks with a Samaritan woman at a well. He travels with women. He counts them among his closest friends. And then at the single most important moment in all of human history, when the greatest announcement ever made needed a messenger, he chose women. In a culture where women couldn't even serve as witnesses in a legal proceeding, Jesus trusted them to be the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection and the first to carry the news that he was alive. As Dorothy Sayers wrote, it is no wonder women were first at the cradle and last at the cross. They had never known a man like this.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1276: God's Original Design for Men and Women
2d ago00:05:10Tap to summarizeBefore sin entered the world and corrupted everything, God made something clear. He created human beings in His own image, male and female, blessed them both, and told them both to fill the earth and rule over creation together. Not the man over the woman. Both of them over creation. Co-regents. And that word helper used to describe the woman? It's used throughout the Old Testament to refer to God himself. Helper doesn't mean assistant. It means someone without whom you cannot do what you were made to do. The ruling of one man over one woman wasn't God's design. It was the result of the fall. Marriage was never meant to be a duo but a trio: God, husband, and wife, ruling over creation together as one. So how does knowing that men and women were made equally in the image of God, designed from the very beginning for a shared life and shared purpose, change the way you see yourself and the people around you?Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1275: What Jesus Actually Said About Women
3d ago00:05:29Tap to summarizeIn some churches today, women still can't serve communion. In the church Gene grew up in, men made the financial and leadership decisions while women washed the baptism robes and decorated for Christmas. Many women, not just from the culture around them but from the church itself, have received the message over and over that they are small, insignificant, and second-class. That message is not from Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 3 that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. That is not a peripheral verse. It is a declaration at the very heart of the gospel. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Any message that tells a woman she is less valuable, less capable, or less welcomed by God is not a gospel message. It is a contradiction of it. This week, we're looking honestly at what Jesus really said about women, and it might surprise you.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1274: What Relationships Are Worth Building?
6d ago00:06:25Tap to summarizeWhen John Fawcett loaded his possessions onto a moving cart to leave the small congregation he had served for seven years, he began his goodbyes. And then it was too much. He unloaded the cart and stayed. He never left. He died there fifty-four years later and wrote a hymn that captured what he felt: Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. Joined in heart, and the hope to meet again. That is the hope of Christian relationships. But here's the foundation underneath all of it: you can only build this kind of relationship if you are in Jesus. Without that, even the deepest bonds are still temporary. With it, every friendship formed in the body of Christ carries the promise of eternity. So take an honest look at your church community. Are you knowing people, loving them in action, and genuinely concerned for their well-being? Pick one relationship this weekend and decide to invest in it more deeply.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1273: How Real Concern for Others Becomes a Way of Life
1w ago00:06:35Tap to summarizeJesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Most of us would nod along quickly, but very few of us have actually built our lives around it. The word blessed here doesn't just mean happy. It means deeply satisfied, living in the fullness of what you were created for. The giver is the one living the richest life. Paul never stopped being concerned for the Ephesian elders, even while he was away. His concern wasn't just emotional. It showed up in his teaching, his warnings, his prayers, and ultimately his sacrifice. That's what genuine concern looks like. It builds something in a person that outlasts your presence. So think about someone in your life right now who might be feeling slow and low and stuck. Not just a passing thought or a prayer from a distance. What would real, active concern look like for that person this week?Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1272: We Shouldn't Need a Crisis to Bring Us Together
1w ago00:05:37Tap to summarizeFour donkeys shared a pasture but kept to their own corners, eyeing each other with suspicion. Then the weather turned foul. Cold, wind-driven rain with nowhere to shelter except with each other. By morning, all four were huddled together. In a crisis, mutual jealousy and strangeness were forgotten. We need that kind of breakthrough in the church, but we shouldn't need a crisis to get there. The Ephesian elders walked thirty miles just to see Paul one final time. He wept over them, prayed for them, and loved them deeply. That's love in action. And if our love isn't in action, it's worth asking whether it's really love at all. So think about someone in your church community toward whom your love has been more talk than action. A phone call. A text. Showing up. What would one concrete step look like this week?Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1271: Take One Step Today Toward Actually Knowing Someone
1w ago00:06:47Tap to summarizePaul said to the Ephesian elders: "You know how I lived when I was with you." That statement only works if you've actually spent real time together. Over three years, they had come to know him as a servant, a teacher, an evangelist, and a sacrificer. And he knew them just as deeply. That kind of mutual knowledge is what made their farewell so emotionally raw. It's also what makes real community possible. But you'll never get there if your involvement is limited to darting in five minutes before church and heading straight for the car when the final song is over. Here's the challenge: stay fifteen extra minutes this weekend. Introduce yourself to someone you don't know. Get into a small group. Grab coffee with someone this week. Just one step. Because the eternal relationships God designed us for don't happen by accident.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1270: You're Going to Spend Eternity With These People So You Might as Well Start Now
1w ago00:05:58Tap to summarizeThe person sitting next to you at church this weekend is someone you'll be spending eternity with. That new believer who doesn't know anybody yet needs you to reach out. And that Christian you've had a sharp disagreement with, the one you've criticized behind their back, God is probably going to tell you to spend the next thousand years with them and work it out. The relationships we build in the body of Christ aren't just for a season. They're eternal. Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 is one of the most emotionally raw moments in all of Scripture. Three years of deep ministry together, and now a final goodbye, he knew was permanent. That kind of bond doesn't happen by accident. So think of one person in your church community you've let distance grow with. Because if you're going to spend forever together, building something real now seems like a pretty good place to start.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1269: What Happens When You Finally Stop Trying to Figure It Out Alone
2w ago00:06:37Tap to summarizePowerless is not a terrible place to end up. It's actually the beginning of something. The Bible teaches that by admitting weakness you access strength you never had before. Not your strength. God's. When you finally release your white-knuckled grip on the problem and say "I can't do this," that's when He can. Think about the person who spends three hours assembling furniture before looking at the instructions. The pile of mysterious leftover hardware grows, and the bookshelf leans slightly to the left. The moment the instructions come out is the moment actual progress begins. Not because they're magic, but because the admission that you needed them was the thing blocking everything else. The cycles that have repeated themselves in your life can change. But only when you stop trying to be your own solution.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
Transcribe →Episode 1268: Why Willpower Was Never Going to Be Enough
2w ago00:06:34Tap to summarizeThe road to recovery always starts with the same admission: I am powerless. That's not a defeat statement. It's the most liberating sentence you may ever say. Here's what makes it so hard though: we settle the biggest question of existence with God and then spend the rest of our days trying to manage everything else on our own. Good intentions aren't enough. Willpower isn't enough. You need a source of power beyond yourself. You were made to need God, and admitting that isn't weakness. It's the door to everything.Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.
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