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Pursuing God with Gene Appel
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.
Episodes
1334 episodes
Episode 1311: What the Richest Man Alive Couldn't Buy
If you could afford anything you wanted, would you finally feel content? Solomon could, and what he discovered surprised even him. He was a king with more wealth, power, and pleasure than anyone in history, and he still walked away restless....
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Episode 1310: The Difference Between a Busy Life and a Meaningful One
Have you ever stopped in the middle of a packed week and wondered if any of it actually matters? I've been there, and so was Solomon, the wisest and richest man who ever lived. He denied himself nothing this world had to offer, yet he still ...
Episode 1309: The Reason Trying Harder Never Fixes Your Relationships
All week, we've walked through four ways to love the people in our lives the way God loves us: understanding, acceptance, discipline, and love. But here's the honest truth I want to close with. None of it can be sustained on willpower alone....
Episode1308: Are You Loving People in Your Language or Theirs?
There's a difference between loving someone and being loving toward them. The love can be real, but if it isn't expressed in a language the other person actually hears, they can still feel unseen. The trouble is we tend to show love the way ...
Episode 1307: How To Have That Difficult Conversation You've Been Avoiding
In any relationship where you have real influence, love sometimes means saying the hard thing. But there's a difference between correcting someone and punishing them. Punishing is about the past, making someone pay for what they did. Correct...
Episode 1306: Why Acceptance Is the Thing Your Closest Relationships Need Most
The people closest to us often get the least unconditional acceptance from us. We hold our highest expectations for the ones we love most, and pull back when they fall short. But that's not how God treats me. Psalm 145 reminds me He's gracio...
Episode 1305: How to Encourage the People You Love to Become Who They're Meant to Be
If you ask people what they most want from the people closest to them, it usually comes down to one thing: to be understood. Not fixed, not corrected, not molded into someone else's image, just truly seen for who they are. This week we're dr...
Episode 1304: The Two Ways to Write Your Next Chapter
Tomorrow you're going to write a new chapter in your story, and the only real question is what kind of pen you'll be holding. All week in Exodus 14, we watched two million people stuck between the Red Sea and an army, caught in the cycle of ...
Episode 1303: The One Step Most People Are Too Afraid to Take
When my back is against the wall and I'm out of options, what I really believe about God gets exposed. The Israelites found that out fast, pinned between the Red Sea and an army with nowhere to run. But notice what God told them in Exodus 14...
Episode 1302: What Fear Wants You to Forget
When fear takes over, it has a way of making me forget what's actually true. The Israelites felt it the moment they were trapped between the Red Sea and an army closing in, and I've felt it myself, lying awake at night wondering if I'd misre...
Episode 1301: Fear, Sarcasm, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Be honest: do you make better or worse decisions when you're afraid? Yesterday, we named three things that show up when our backs are against the wall: fear, sarcasm, and worst-case thinking. Today, we slow down and look at how they feed eac...
Episode 1300: When Your Back Is Against the Wall
What are we gonna do now? That's the question a lot of us are asking as financial pressure and uncertainty keep piling up. This week we're looking at the Israelites trapped at the edge of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, a moment where fear, sarcas...
Episode 1299: The Most Tangible Way to Love the People Around You
Loving others compassionately is the natural overflow of loving God completely and seeing yourself clearly. And one of the most tangible expressions of that love is what you do with your money. Spending wisely, saving consistently, and givin...
Episode 1298: Two Things Every Person Needs to Hear From You
Before you can love your neighbor well, you have to love yourself accurately. That means holding two things in tension: understanding how uniquely made you are, and understanding how ordinary you are. When you affirm the people in your life ...
Episode 1297: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
The most powerful legacy you can leave isn't a speech or a lesson. It's a life. When the people around you see faith woven into ordinary moments, generosity practiced consistently, and God treated as genuinely central, they're learning somet...
Episode 1296: What It Actually Takes to Break a Generational Pattern
Most of us are carrying patterns we didn't choose, financial anxiety, broken trust, wounds we never named, inherited from the people who raised us. And if we don't deal with them honestly, we don't break them. We pass them on. Today we look ...
Episode 1295: Why the Most Powerful Legacy Isn't Financial
Legacy isn't something you plan at the end of your life. You're building it right now, through the values you hold, the patterns you model, and the example you set for the people coming behind you. The way you handle money, faith, and relati...
Episode 1294: The Freedom That Comes When Enough Is Finally Enough
At some point, more stops satisfying. The most content wealthy people aren't chasing the next car, the next home, or the next milestone. They've reached a different conclusion: that affluence is something to steward, not accumulate, and that...
Episode 1293: The Surprising Link Between Having Less and Less Anxiety
It turns out some of the most content people aren't the most comfortable ones. Those living with humble means often develop something the affluent struggle to find: a genuine dependence on God, a willingness to lean on community, and a heart...
Episode 1292: The One Shift That Breaks the Cycle of Financial Worry
Contentment isn't a personality trait, it's something you learn. In Philippians 4, Paul writes from prison with a peace that has nothing to do with his circumstances, because he discovered that financial security isn't underwritten by your b...
Episode 1291: Why Financial Worry Hits Every Income Level
Whether you're barely getting by or financially comfortable, money worries have a way of finding you. The poor fear not having enough. The wealthy fear losing what they have. And those in the middle are often just one paycheck away from the ...
Episode 1290: What Financial Stress Is Really Costing You
Financial stress doesn't just drain your bank account, it drains your relationships, your sleep, and your peace of mind. Whether you're carrying debt, facing job uncertainty, or just struggling to keep up, worry has a way of consuming what i...
Episode 1289: Five Financial Traps Worth Avoiding
Solomon identified five financial traps that quietly keep people stuck. Impulsiveness, buying something you don't need because the deal seemed too good to pass up. Stubbornness, refusing to follow a plan because pride gets in the way. Lazine...
Episode 1288: Lifestyle Creep and What It Costs You
Income goes up and spending rises to meet it. Nicer restaurants, newer cars, better vacations, upgraded everything. None of it is wrong in isolation. But when the love of comfort quietly becomes the organizing principle of your finances, you...