Journeying with Jesus

Curious about the life and purpose of Jesus? Discover how his teachings can inspire love, courage, and forgiveness in your life. Tune in to the latest episode of Cheer Up Podcast and embark on a spiritual adventure with us! #JesusChrist #Podcast

Chapters

• 0:19 Exploring the New Testament With Jesus
• 7:41 The Life and Purpose of Jesus
• 24:31 Encountering Christ and Living for Him
• 30:56 Connecting With Jesus Through Community

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast. I am your host, kara R Hunt, and with me is Sherri Wonderful Swalwell. How are you doing today, sherri? I am doing great. For those of you who are just tuning in. Welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:42

To our lawyer listeners, thank you for tuning in every week and we thank you. We see you, we know you're there. Thank you to our listeners nationwide. We are seeing new states pop up on our board all the time. Last week I think we had New York, so I'm hoping New York that was new to our board, so we're hoping again that New York you know that you're listening, hey, hi, you know, along with Texas, indiana, florida, michigan, missouri, all of you states that popped up on our board. Just thank you so so much. And nationwide, we just thank all of our international listeners for tuning in weekly to the Cheer Up podcast. And again, if the podcast is blessing you or if you really enjoy it and it's been a blessing to you, please share it with a friend. We would appreciate that so much.

Speaker 1: 1:40

For those who may type in something like inspirational podcast, encouraging podcast, joyful podcast, anything like that, it helps us in the algorithm and so they'll be able to. People who are searching will be able to find our podcast a lot easier. So thank you for that. And the same thing with downloading and subscribing and sharing and just making people, letting people know that we are out there, you know that we exist. And it's very important sometimes that you share the podcast, because from the platform or from the website, because it gives them a direct link, because I just found out, maybe about a week ago, that there's another podcast out there called the Cheer Up Podcast, but it has nothing to do with ours, it is nothing like ours. So instead of just saying to them oh the Cheer Up Podcast, you got to get it. So to make sure that they get the right one, it really will be beneficial if you just share it with them from wherever you're listening to them, so that they'll be able to know the exact Cheer Up podcast. So welcome.

Speaker 1: 3:00

And we are now starting in the New Testament. For those who have been following us all year, as we've talked about biblical figures from the Bible, we did a whole bunch of Old Testament figures up to now and their stories, and how do they relate to us today, which all of them do, how they relate to us today, which all of them do, how they relate to us today and how it relates to our foundational scripture of John 16, 33. And so we've done that, and so, but today we get to start in the New Testament. And guess who we're starting with? I'll wait. I'm going to count to three. Yes, you are right.

Speaker 1: 3:45

We are starting with no one other than the Messiah himself, jesus Christ of Nazareth, and Sherry is going to lead us in this discussion. Wow, sherry, how do you even sum up Jesus? And like a 30 minute podcast.

Speaker 2: 4:07

You don't Right, which is why I want to start with a confession. So my confession is that I used to not like to read the Bible. I'll be honest. It was kind of like clean eating. It was kind of like all those things that you have to do exercise I like moving my body, I like doing things that are fun, but I didn't like exercising. I didn't like being forced to read my Bible. I didn't like being forced to eat green beans. I didn't like being forced to do anything. So you know what I did, kara, when I felt that way, but I knew how important it was to hide God's word in my heart, I started praying, just like I was about meeting God.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Give me the want to, to want to not the want to, but just the want to to want to eat healthy. Give me the want to, to want to move my body and, god, give me the want to, to want to read my Bible. I don't care and I both don't want you to just read your Bible. That's not the point of our podcast and that's not the point of of our encouragement every week. If that's if that's you or if that's the case, that's not us. We're not saying go out and read your Bible. We want you to want to learn and to grow and to discover all of the different cool stories and lessons that God wants you to learn from the Bible itself. That's what we want. Our prayer every week for the podcast listeners is that you will fall in love with the Bible, that you will fall in love and that you will have a hunger and a thirst and that when you wake up in the morning, you will be so excited to find out what it is that you get to read about today. And find out what it is that you get to read about today. That is our prayer for you guys. So, on that note, I can honestly say to you that I still don't like have a desire to sit and check off the box, that I read my Bible today, but I have a hunger and a thirst and an excitement for what is God going to teach me today, what is God going to show me in the Bible today? And when I hear different sermons or when I hear people talking about different elements and different stories, different historical events that happened in the Bible, it gets me excited to go and read it for myself. In fact, just yesterday, my husband and I were talking about Revelation and we were both kind of confused about a specific area of Revelation, because Revelation is very confusing and that's not what we're talking about today. But I was like, well, maybe we should do this or maybe we should do that. And we went back and we were looking and we were studying and we were like, oh, and our questions weren't necessarily answered, but we had a deeper appreciation and I felt closer to him because it was something that we did together. So that's the other thing.

Speaker 2: 7:15

I love the fact that Kara and I are going through the Bible with all of you because it makes it so much more personal when we can talk about it. It makes it so much more, it brings more depth to it and it's just more amazing. So today, like she said, well, we've already gone through the Old Testament and there is so much more Through the Old Testament. Our prayer is that we got you excited to start reading the Old Testament for yourself, that we will get you excited about reading about the New Testament and about the different people in the New Testament. So today we get to talk about Jesus and you know what, what I was asking him and when I was thinking about what God do you want me to talk about? About you? What do you want me to tell people about your son? What's the most important thing?

Speaker 2: 8:07

And um, I kept coming back to the verse of first John 1 1 and that is in the beginning was the word and the word was with God of 1 John 1. But that is like the key element, I believe, to starting to talk about Jesus, and that is yes, it's John 1, I'm sorry, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him, nothing was made. That was made In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Speaker 2: 8:54

So what I want to start with is that Jesus was here way back in the Old Testament. Jesus, god and the Holy Spirit had been with us the entire time and that has never changed, and his whole purpose like so in Malachi. So we have, malachi was the last book of the Old Testament and then the first book in the New Testament is Matthew, and in between Matthew and Malachi was a period of, I believe. Do you remember how many years was in between Malachi and Matthew, tara? Because I believe it was 400 years of silence.

Speaker 1: 9:44

That's exactly what I was getting ready to say. I almost positive it's 400 years of silence.

Speaker 2: 9:52

So, if you think about that, that is at least four generations of people who went from not hearing from God to hearing from God again. And the very next time that they hear from God in Matthew is Mary and Joseph hearing from the angel Gabriel saying that. Well, no, I think. I think Elizabeth and Zachariah heard first about John the Baptist and then Mary and Joseph heard about Jesus coming. So the point of the matter is that for 400 years there was silence, they hadn't heard from God, and then all of a sudden they start to hear from him again.

Speaker 2: 10:35

And Jesus's main purpose, his main goal, was to come to earth, earth to tell people about himself and then to die for our sins, be buried for three days and then rise again and go back up into heaven. So he came to earth the first time, back with Mary and Joseph. He came as a baby. He was fully God and fully man, but he couldn't sin because he was God. But yet he felt all of the feels, all of the emotions of a human being. He suffered. So when he was on the cross dying, he was suffering, he felt the pain and he felt the agony, not just the physical pain of the beatings that he took. But he felt the emotional pain of being rejected. He felt the spiritual pain of being separated from his father because God, the Father, couldn't look on him with all of the sin that was on him, and he felt the spiritual pain of being well. That was the separation, but he also felt the mental pain. He felt the pain. So just because he was God doesn't mean that he was excused from feeling the pain. He felt it, but he had a purpose. He had a purpose and a goal. The first time that he came to heaven and earth, to earth as a baby, he laid aside his. It tells us that he took on human emotions and he took on a human body and he came and he never once failed in his purpose, in his destiny, and that I love the gospels because they're the life of Jesus, and Matthew, mark, luke and because they're the life of Jesus. And Matthew, mark, luke and John tell us the life of Jesus or tell us about the life of Jesus, and I love how he is an example to us, that we, anytime that I have a question or anytime that I have a dilemma of how should I act or what should I do, I like to go back and study the gospel and see what Jesus would do. And, as you can see in there, he was not a um and he was not weak. He was not. He didn't let people walk all over him. He wasn't a people pleaser by any means or any stretch of the matter.

Speaker 2: 13:03

And the thing that I find so interesting and so fascinating about Jesus is that he always told the truth. He always told people what was going to happen, what was happening. He never like if something in my life is going to happen, or if I have to confront somebody about something, I usually won't confront them. I'll usually be like oh you know, we'll just wait and see and then they can just figure out what's going to happen when it happens. No one, that's the coward way. Do not do what I do, and I'm trying really hard to stop doing that because that's not mature and that's not um, that's. That's just not the right way to do things.

Speaker 2: 13:43

But God always told the truth. He always told people what was going to happen, what was happening. He he didn't shy away from the tough stuff. Um, in fact the the time I I mean he did it time and time again, over and over in his um while he lived on the, his 33 years here on earth. But the one that strikes me the most is when um judas was sitting right next to him at the last supper and he said the one who shares this bread with me, the one who dips his bread in the oil with me, is the one who's going to betray me. And sure enough, there was Judas, and he was dipping the oil. And I'm thinking to myself how can he be so dumb to not see what he just said? He just told you Judas is going to betray him.

Speaker 2: 14:29

And they still didn't get it. So a lot of times God was very blunt and very truthful and people still didn't get it. And it said that right there in the verse of John, john chapter one, verses one through three, that people in the darkness still didn't get it. They didn't understand the message, didn't understand what he was saying. But and I don't know if that was because of the 400 years of silence, that they just weren't used to hearing his voice. If they had never, because, if you think about it, that would be about three or four generations of people who hadn't heard from him, so they almost were having to learn all over again.

Speaker 2: 15:10

But Jesus is just yeah. To try to, to try to sum him up in 30 minutes is impossible. So instead of trying to sum him up today, I just want you to get excited about Jesus, excited about reading about him, excited about learning about what kind of a human man he was. But he was also God. And then when he comes back again for the second coming the Bible describes that he came the first time as a sheep, as a lamb, and the second time he's coming back as a lion, not in a bad way, but he will be ruling over heaven and earth and he will be living those of us who choose to become Christ followers, those who choose to give their lives to God. He's going to walk on the new heaven and the new earth with us the rest of our lives, forever. Like I can't even. I just can't even comprehend. Like, to me, that's just mind-blowing and amazing. So I mean, there's just so much to say about him, sarah? What do you have to say?

Speaker 1: 16:28

Oh, wow, like, where do you start with Jesus? Right Because in our culture Jesus, right, because in our culture we celebrate him or he gets I hate to use the word more recognition. What is the word?

Speaker 2: 16:50

I'm looking for Maybe just lift it up Celebrated.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Thank you. Yes, he's celebrated like twice a year, you know, culture-wise all around, that's what I mean, not just for your, of course, christians and believers we go to church, we do Bible study to deepen our walk with Jesus, you know, and things like that. But nationally it's recognized about twice a year, and that is Christmas and Easter, which celebrate his birth, and then, of course, easter, which celebrates his erection. And as believers, we know that there's a lot that went on in Jesus's life those 33 years, wasn't it, sherry? Those 33 years of his life between his birth and his death and resurrection.

Speaker 1: 17:50

And if I'm not mistaken, I think I was doing a study not too long ago that said his ministry didn't even start. He was like 13, right? So it's like because when the first time he was, I think when the parents had lost him I'm trying to remember from the study correctly, so excuse me if I'm wrong but like the time where his parents had lost him or whatever, and they thought he was with a caravan with them as they were traveling to another city, but then he was in a temple preaching, and I think that that was the first time that he did that and I think he was around 13 years old, if I remember the study correctly. But there's so much more to that. So from like 13 to 33, everything that he did. But then there's also what was he doing from a baby to the age of 13? You know, all sorts of crazy questions go through my head, like did he have to get spankings? Did he ever do anything wrong? Did he fight with his siblings? Did he squabble with his siblings? And the Bible pretty much answers that with. You know, there was no sin in him. So I doubt you know any of those things ever happened. But did he play with other children? Did he have a best friend as he was growing up? So there's so much more to Jesus's life, I think, than we recognize in the everyday. And then, of course, when his ministry starts, recognizing the everyday, and then, of course, when his ministry starts, it's his teaching.

Speaker 1: 19:19

He was called Rabbi, he was a teacher, he did miracles, he performed miracles, he did things out of the ordinary, like with the Samaritan woman, where he sat down at the well and actually talked with her, which was so unusual at that time. That was just like basically unheard of, because they, the Israelites and the Samaritans, were at odds with each other, and so and not to mention her being a Samaritan woman, right, which was even less than the less, than the less so, but yet, because of who he is and what he does, he took someone that the world frowned upon at the time and he ministered to her and she, in turn, ministered to others and was able to bring so many people through her testimony. She was able to bring so many people Samaritans to Christ, I mean, and that's just one of the things that he did, so, not to mention His death and resurrection that we are believers today because of that. There's just so much more and there's no way we could ever, ever try to summarize it necessarily in 30 minutes. But I tell you this if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've thought about it, you've flipped around in your mind like should, I, could, I would, I, you know, and everything else. I would suggest that you do. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by accepting the Lord, jesus Christ of Nazareth, as your Savior. You have nothing to lose, you know you have nothing to lose, but you have everything to gain. I say give Jesus a try If you haven't done so, but you've always thought about it and you're like, yeah, but you Christians, you're a bunch of hypocrites and everything else. Well, yeah, there are some that are, but then there are some that are not, and it doesn't matter, because you're not becoming a Kararite or a Sheririte or a Babite or a Suviite or a Sistian or a Kararistian or a Sheriristian or anything like that. You're becoming a Christian.

Speaker 1: 21:31

The one thing about people is that we're human. We all bleed red, no matter race, color, creed or culture or nation that you live in or that we're a part of. We all bleed red. We're human. We were born into a fallen world and so, of course, yes, humans are always going to let you down, but Jesus Christ never will, and so I just want to encourage you to have you ever thought about it? Or have you said you know this is something I may want to do? Then I just encourage you to do it. Like I said, I can't think of one thing that you're going to lose, but all my words just having a relationship with the Savior of the world, your Savior, whether you acknowledge it or not, will change your life for the better. That's all I wanted to ask, sherry.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I think nobody could have said that better. Kara, you did such an amazing job, and the only thing I want to add to what Kara said, excuse me, is that if you give him a try, he will change your life. And it's not like she said. It's not the Baptist church that will change your life, it's not the non-denominational church that will change your life, it's not the Catholic church that will change your life. Jesus Christ will change your life.

Speaker 2: 23:00

I was listening to a sermon yesterday and it was talking about how, when Jesus came, he was our example of how it would be, how it would feel, how we would experience living with the Holy Spirit inside of us. Because in the Old Testament, as we've been talking about, the Holy Spirit didn't live inside of people. The Holy Spirit was, I believe, like part of the Ark of the Covenant. He was outside of the people, he was not living inside the people. And so when Jesus got baptized and he came up out of the water, it says there was a dove symbolized the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2: 23:34

And so for those three years of his teaching ministry, he showed by example what it would be like to live with the Holy Spirit, and when he came back to life. He said to the people you need to wait here until the helper comes. And they didn't know what he meant by that and I wouldn't have known what he meant by that either, but he, he gave them the Holy Spirit. It's the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us that allows us to to do the things that we do when we pray, and the prayers, um well, I'm hesitating and I'm stopping because, literally, that's like a topic for another day, because it's so involved in so details and it would be an hour.

Speaker 1: 24:22

And we did a podcast on it.

Speaker 2: 24:24

Right, right, so you can go back and listen to it yourself. Want to add to what Kara said was when you have Jesus Christ, when you make him Lord of your life, when you have an encounter with God, it changes you for the better. You will never be the same in a good way. You will look at life differently. You'll start stop living out of the earthly perspective and start with, from a heavenly perspective, your thoughts on people and situations. Looking at life now and looking, looking at the different people that, um, maybe profess to know god but are living such hatred towards other people, that's not Jesus, that's that's faulty humans, that's that's being humans and that's that's making a mistake and putting it in Jesus or calling it with Jesus' name. And that keeps him that grief. And anytime we do anything opposite of what the Bible says, it grieves Jesus, it grieves our Heavenly Father and it grieves the Holy Spirit. But you have an encounter with the true Christ, with the true Jesus Christ, and with our Heavenly Father and with the Holy Spirit. It changes you, it changes us, and in that I mean that's why we do what we do, because we're excited, because we want to live the way that God wants us to live.

Speaker 2: 26:00

And the more we read in the Bible about who Jesus is and how he lived his life, the more we can imitate him. You can't imitate something that you don't know what they're doing. If I didn't spend any time with my husband, I wouldn't have a clue what his likes are, what his dislikes are, and I would be shooting in the dark to get in the present, to spend quality time with him, to suggest kind of activities to do together, because I wouldn't have a clue what he really likes, what his heart is all about, what he really likes what his heart is all about. So the more we spend time with Jesus, the more we get to know his heart, to adopt our hearts, to be more in line with his heart, and that is what changes the world, that is what makes the difference. That is when people see his love shine through us, because it's not us, it's him and we're making the room for him to live through us. That's always been prayers that I want people to see Jesus shine through me and not me, not anything about me.

Speaker 2: 27:15

So I could just keep going on and on and on and on. But really, truly, we just want to invite you to take a hard look at yourself and ask yourself the question am I a believer, yes or no? Have I asked Jesus into my heart? Have I accepted him as my Lord and Savior? Have I surrendered my life to him? And if not, why not? What's holding you back? And now is a perfect time to start. So if that's something that you want to do, then I would invite you to say this prayer with me when we mean what we're praying, then we will be saved. So I'm inviting you to pray this prayer with me if you are feeling the nudge or the desire or the urgency even to become a believer today. Oh Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus' name. I believe you died on the cross and that you rose again and you're seated on the throne. Jesus, forgive me for all that I have done wrong, and I choose to forgive all others. Come into my life today and forever. I am yours In Jesus' name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer with us, I want to say welcome to the family.

Speaker 2: 28:38

If you are already a believer and you just want to have that connection with God. You want to have that excitement about reading your Bible, about focusing and thinking on whatever is pure, whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is righteous. Think on these things If you want to learn how to make Jesus first and foremost in your life and not just an added benefit or an accessory in your life, but you want him to be number one in your life, then check out the Jesus in the Everyday membership. You can head over to my website, sherryswellwellcom, or you can also type in Jesus in the Everyday It'll pop up that way too and check it out. Check out the membership. It's $10 a month, $9.99. If you're a college student or a young adult or a sweet senior, there's a discount, and it's just a way to keep him as number one in your life. It's a way to have that accountability, and we all need that accountability. I know I do. I need it for eating clean, I need it for exercising, I need it to be the best Sherry that I can be, with God's help, and so that's what the membership is all about. So go check that out If that's something that you're interested in, and I have exciting news that I want to share with you All four of Kara's book, the Habakkuk series.

Speaker 2: 30:15

So all four that are out. So that would be Paper Dolls, paper Dolls Type Paper Dolls Priscilla and Paper Dolls Eve oh wait and Lydia too. So five, all five, yes, all five, sorry. So all five, not all four. Lydia as well. They are all on audiobook, so that means if you like audiobooks instead of reading a book, you have that option now with the Habakkuk series. I am so excited because I know so many people love to listen instead of read, and now you have that chance with the Paper Doll series. So go check that out too. You can find more information for that on karahrhuntcom, on her website.

Speaker 2: 30:56

Again, you can head over to SherriSlowellcom if you want to, but if you need prayer or encouragement or say you have questions, even that you just want to have answered, or you just want to talk to somebody about, head over to the Tear Up podcast at gmailcom and have a conversation with us.

Speaker 2: 31:17

We would love to play with you, we would love to talk to you, we would love to encourage you. Um, we love every single email that we get, so head over there and we can have that conversation. Or you can head over to the facebook page cheer up podcast and we can start a community um question or a discussion um in the in the on the Facebook page for the whole community to join in. So lots of different options. Again, we are so glad that you are here. There's just so much to talk about Jesus that we are just barely skimming the surface because we need hours upon hours. But the point of it and what we want to share the most, is that we want you to get excited about delving into your Bible yourself and again, if you have questions about where to start or how to do that, email us. We would love to walk alongside you and just be there with you. So have a great rest of your day, be blessed, have a great day and we will talk to you next.