SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, hey everybody. Welcome to the very first episode of, I guess, a mini podcast, a subpodcast of the His Hands Church podcast. I don't even know if there's a term for that. This is going to be a type of podcast that we do pretty often called Crash Course. And the idea behind this is really simple. Sometimes we've decided to follow Jesus. Maybe we're a new believer, or maybe we've been following Jesus for years, but we just feel like we don't know our stuff. We hear terms and words and concepts talked about in church or among other people who are following Jesus, and we sort of get it, but we're kind of hazy, and we just we just need someone to give us a crash course.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

It's almost like a foreign language.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, right. It is. And by the way, the voice you're hearing right now is the one and only Scott Case, who's a very good friend of mine. So I didn't even introduce you because I'm a jerk and it's the first episode, but whatever. So I guess, you know, Scott, hello. How are you doing? Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Scott has uh has been a friend of mine for a long time. We we worked together back in the day in the children's area here at his hands. Um I mean, it's you you're a you're a well-rounded, I mean, you've taught in Bible colleges. Uh you have are a former putt-putt like world champion. That's an actual story that's true. We don't have time to get into.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Uh financial I don't I think we definitely don't want to get into that on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Financial planning, bodybuilding, putt-putt, Bible college. You know, ventriloquism. Ventriloquism. In other words, Scott's a weird dude. Um but but no, I uh the reason I'm excited to have Scott's gonna be on a lot of these. There'll be different people that'll that'll be on this podcast uh from time to time, but Scott will be be one of the most regular people on it. Um he knows he A Scott, you know the Bible really well. Um and you have a really great way of communicating it simply, which is what this is all about. And so if you're listening to this, we hope that that each of these episodes just helps you understand a concept that that's part of our faith a little bit more clearly. Um every episode we'll go over a different concept, a different word, or a different teaching in the Bible. And these are not gonna be exhaustive because each one's only gonna be about 15 minutes long. This is just a crash course meant to kind of get you caught up to speed so you feel like, oh, okay, I I get that. And we're gonna start, Scott, with the easiest topic that I think you could possibly have in the world, and that is God.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Easy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Let's start off with a simple one and then we'll build from the we'll build to the point where I thought that uh yeah, obviously, let's just talk about the concept of a higher power. The reason I want to start with God is because there's a lot of different faiths in the world, there's a lot of different uh ideas of God. Every major faith or religion, whatever you want to call it, has uh a God for the most part. I mean, like Buddhism, there's not really a God, there's more of a force. A force, right? Like Star Wars.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Um And Star Wars is actually based on Eastern religion, it is and their concept of God.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Absolutely. And uh and if you were to talk to a Christian or someone that's that's maybe Muslim or even someone else that that doesn't even fall under typical faith or or religion, and you ask them, they'll they'll they'll all use the word God, but they mean different things. Right. And so what we want to talk about first is when we say God in the context of Jesus and the context of of Christianity, who is God? And Scott, I guess I'll I'll give it to you. If someone comes to you and says, Hey, uh, who's God to you as a Jesus follower, what would you say?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

You know, uh first of all, God is a person. God is not just this ethereal force that's out there, as you said earlier, this higher power. God is a person, and God is the person who created everything we see. The Bible says that he took from what was invisible and created everything we see that's visible. He did it by his word. God is our father. God treats us like his children, he loves us like his children. God, why did he create us? He created us because of fellowship. He wanted fellowship, he wanted to share his love, he needed objects of his love. But I think that's the important thing is to understand that God is a person. God is outside time. And, you know, it's funny that with Einstein and all the things that they've discovered in the realm of physics, they're starting to actually come around to a lot of concepts that the Bible talks about, that God talks about in the Bible. But you think about God being outside time, God is eternal. People say, Well, where did God come from? Well, God has always been because time has actually not always been. God was around before there was time, God created time, God is outside time, God is forever, and there is a realm called eternity, and where time is an irrelevant concept. God is in a spirit realm. You know, again, going back to Einstein, just through his genius and equations that the genius that God gave him. He's a pretty smart dude. He was a smart guy, and he said, you know, there's actually probably several realms out there that we just can't see. He deduced that. Well, God lives in the spiritual realm. Everything we see was birthed out of the spiritual realm, into this physical realm, is subordinate to the spiritual realm. God is all powerful, God is almighty. You know, sometimes you hear people talk about God wrestling the devil, fighting the devil. It's not a match. It's not fair. The devil's power is nowhere even close to God's power. God created Satan, God created the angels. Everything that's out there in the spirit realm, in our realm, God created.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

So, you know, if if you're listening to this and you're like, oh man, we're talking about realms and you know, it sounds like sci-fi stuff, right? Or fantasy stuff, you know, spirit realm and angels and Satan and all this other stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Watch the show Supernatural, they'll explain it all. Yeah, it's exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

It's a long running show. It's probably had 10 seasons by now. It's completely biblically accurate. Completely. No, but so you know, kind of piggyback off what you're saying, Scott. So number one, God is is a person, God is a who, not a what. And I think that's a a really big distinction in our faith that that is not um that is not always the case in the way the world sees God or a higher power. You know, that there's a lot of people that see God as the universe, that God is an ethereal sort of force that's out there, and and you know, that's it's interesting to think about. Um, but you can't know the universe. You can't know a force that you can, but you can know a person. Exactly. And since God is a person, that means God can be personal. Um there's a lot of different ideas and terms out there about the nature of God. And for example, you know, there's there's atheism, which is the idea that there is there is no God. Um then there's deism, and deism would be the idea that and a lot of religions in the world kind of fall under this view of God, that there's there is a creator, there is a God who made things. You know, I think a lot of people have looked at the world and said, man, this thing looks pretty pretty complex and specific and fine-tuned, seems to have the the markings of something that was designed, right? So there's probably a designer if it's designed. But deism would say that whoever God is, he created the world, walked away from it, just sort of like someone like gets a top spinning on the ground and then leaves it to do its thing, but is not personally involved.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

And and I'll tell you what's appealing about deism, by the way, and that is that there's no one for us to be accountable to. Yeah. We believe in God, God created things, but I don't have to be accountable to him because he's not really hanging around anymore.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah. So so yeah, I believe God, I believe there's a higher power, but I'm not he's not really paying attention to me, and and that means he's not he doesn't really care about my life, which on one hand is attractive, right? Like, hell, he doesn't care what I do. But but what if what if there's a God that really does care?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

And what if there's a God that cares so much that he actually wants to know you? And the and what if you can have a relationship with with God? What if you can actually know your creator? And where where you know Christianity and the idea of of God that you see in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Bible is very unique actually in the history of the world, is that for most of human history there's been the idea of God or gods, you know, multiple gods, um, which would be polytheism, you know, multiple gods and all that. But generally, the gods have no interest in knowing people. At the very best, they're tolerant or indifferent to people. Uh, at the very worst, they they cannot stand people and they torture people and do things to people just for their own amusement. The idea that that God loves us and wants to know us and wants to be in a personal relationship with us, it's it's an incredibly powerful concept that is not normal in the history of the world. You know, we see in the Old Testament where God says, you know, they will be my people and I will be their God. He is He is a person, therefore, He's personal, and you can actually have a relationship with a person. You can't have a relationship with a thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

And and I'll tell you what's important about that, Justin, is I made the statement earlier. God created us to fellowship with us. God created us for friendship, for being together. The way God created us, if you don't know God, the reality is you're gonna have a hole on the inside of you. You are going to have an empty spot because we were meant to know our Creator. We were meant to, God is love. We were meant to know his love, we were meant to be one with God, literally. That's the way he wants it to be. And today, people, it's not just that they ignore God or don't know God, but they don't that they sense that need on the inside. But a lot of people just don't know why is it? Why is it that I feel this emptiness at times? And I think it's a big source of depression. And until you know God and have that personal relationship with Him, you will be empty on the inside. You will feel like something is missing, and the reason is because something is missing. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

No, absolutely. So if if and I think it's interesting when you think about human nature, the Bible says that we were created in the image of God. And and we'll get into uh in another podcast the idea of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because it would take you know a few more minutes to talk about. And we want to make sure each of these episodes is is bite-sized. But the Bible says we were made in the image of God. In other words, we're we're meant to sort of reflect God. Yes. And so when you look at us, there it's funny, even in the even in a world that will deny the existence of God, there's a lot of people in the world that will just deny that God exists, and yet those people still worship something.

unknown 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Right? Everyone worships something. Some people worship themselves. Some people believe their own intellect, their own ideas are the ultimate force in the universe. Uh some people worship money, some people worship success, some people worship pleasure, some people I mean, there's there's no matter who a person is, there is something that deep down inside that person thinks is worth serving. There is like you said, there's a hole in us. There is something in our our nature as people, as human beings, that seeks to find something to worship, that is always looking for something greater than ourselves that we can devote our lives to. It doesn't matter if you believe in the traditional idea of God or not, everyone is worshiping something. And all you gotta do is open up someone's you know bank account, and you can usually pretty quickly discover what they worship, what what what do they value most, what are they what are they giving themselves to in life? And and that's why the idea of God, this this spiritual but real God that created everything, that created time itself. I mean, you mentioned that, Scott, you know, God created space and time. He took nothing and he made something. He's eternal, he's always existed. That God, the all-powerful, all-knowing, outside of time, eternal God, can be known and exist in a relationship with us. That I can actually know that God and talk to that God and have that God share things with me. And that God who's so big and powerful, cares enough about me that he actually will take time to speak to me and and and affirm that I belong to him. Like that's that's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

It is. And you know, I'm sure Justin, some people are listening to this going, how do these guys even know that God exists? You can't see God. How do they even know God exists? And I'll give you just a little bit of a.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Well, they're thinking it now if they weren't, because you said it.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Because I said it. And they are definitely thinking it. Um and that's you know, that's a valid question. And I'll just give you a little bit about my background. When I was very young, I gave my life to Jesus, but then I went through a period of time when I was in school where I got to the point I really did not believe in God. I wanted to, but you can't see God. And I didn't believe in God. And I'll tell you a couple of things, though, that really helped me turn around and see the reality of God. Number one is prophecy in the Bible. The Bible prophesies about things that are to happen hundreds of years in some situations over a thousand years down the road, and the prophecies were fulfilled to the nth degree. I mean, very detailed. And when I first saw that and began to see how many prophecies were fulfilled, again, so exactly, I started to think there's got to be something supernatural here. This did not just happen. It was too precise. But then the second thing is just when you look around, you know, the whole thing of evolution versus creation, and maybe that'll be the subject of one of uh our other uh talks here, but you know, to think that everything that we see came from nothing, to me that takes a lot more faith than it does to believe in God.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Right, with with no creative force behind it. Like creative force meaning intelligence, creativity as we would know it, that you know, that randomly with no one, no one at the wheel, this all happened to be.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

That is nowhere near what evolution is. Evolution is there are no parts to the watch. The parts to the watch just formed by themselves.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

And you're talking about Darwinian you know, evolution. Sometimes that word evolution, there's a lot of different you know, the the idea that there was nothing and then things just sort of appeared, the primordial soup sort of thing, and uh eventually you know protein molecules formed and then those became functioning cells, and those cells went from being single-celled organisms to multi-celled organisms, and that out and and again, all that it's like even if you study the mathematical probabilities associated with a lot of those theories, you're right. Like, man, that takes a lot of faith to believe that that just sort of all happened, because how many things in our world do we see that just sort of happen and they end up being functioning, you know, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

So they're it would be like finding a personal computer in the middle of the desert filled with information on its hard drive, and somebody looks at it and goes, Wow, what are the odds that thing formed?

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

You know, no. Where you have clear information, where you have clear structure, where you have clear organization, something made that.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

So I'll just kind of recap it and we'll we'll wrap this one up. Uh obviously we'll we'll need more than one episode to talk about the idea of God, but uh, and we'll get more specific uh in our next episode. But but to sort of recap, we've talked about okay, who is God? All right, well, in our faith as as Christians, God is the the supernatural creator of the universe. Now, I use that word supernatural because I want to circle back around to something I was kind of commenting on earlier where you know you started talking and you're like, and he's in the spirit realm and he in the created angels. A lot of times, especially if we're new in our faith, or maybe we're just even questioning, we start to hear phrases like that and we go, I don't know. That seems a little odd, right? Well, here's the reality. God, if he's not supernatural, he's not God.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

So we sometimes go, ooh, that stuff sounds like it's kind of well, yeah, it's it's not natural. It's supernatural. So God is supernatural, which means he exists outside of nature because he created it. He he is above nature, he is over nature. So God is supernatural, um, which means he's not bound to the laws of nature, he's not bound to the laws of time. That means he can be, you know, anywhere at any time. He's he's God. So he's a supernatural creator who is the designer of the universe, he is the designer of us, he's our creator, he thought us up, he made us. And and this is what you kind of started with, and we'll wrap up with because I think this is the the thing to know if you're a Jesus follower, is to know why he made you. So a lot of times people say things like, Oh, you know, God created us to worship him. Nope. God does not need us to worship him at all. You know, he's not like a like Tinkerbell or a fairy in the Peter Pan, and if you don't believe in him, he'll die.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

He was doing great before we should be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

He's fine. He's God, he's got he's got all he needs. The Bible actually says that he created us to love us. He did not create us to worship him. He he does not have self-confidence issues, he's not insecure, he doesn't need a bunch of people, you know, and and honestly, if he would have created us to worship him, he wouldn't have given us the ability to choose not to worship him.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Um, but he created you to know you. He created you to have a relationship with you, he created you so that you could experience his love in your life. That's actually what the Bible teaches. That we were made, and that's in Ephesians chapter one, by the way, that we were made to be the focus of his love. And so when we say God, and we're gonna say God a lot in this podcast, we're talking about the supernatural creative force in the universe that is personal and knowable, and you can actually have a relationship with that is God. Um, I think that's gonna wrap it up for episode one. And so uh keep listening, and we look forward to talking to you guys more about this in our next episode. We're gonna talk about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit because that's a concept in our faith that sometimes can be a little confusing. So uh talk to you guys soon. Thanks for listening.