Girls Gone Bible - Deny Yourself Pleasure | Girls Gone Bible
Episode Date: January 17, 2025Hiiiii GGB:) in this week's episode, we discuss the importance of denying your flesh and overcoming temptation, resisting the pursuit of worldly pleasures as the ultimate goal in life. Drawing from... Ecclesiastes and Solomon's reflections, we examine how chasing wealth, pleasure, and material desires leaves the soul empty. Life's purpose is not found in chasing temporary pleasures but in pursuing a relationship with Jesus. Together, we reflect on how shifting our priorities to align with Christ leads to true joy, fulfillment, and purpose. We love you so much. Jesus loves you more. -Ang & Ari episode starts at 24 minutes. JOIN US ON GGB+ 🥹❤️ https://ggb.supportingcast.fm WE ARE ON THE OFFICIAL GIRLS GONE BIBLE LIVE TOUR! www.girlsgonebible.com/tour for the first batch of cities we have locked in :) WE LOVE YOU AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU!
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Ontario I think I have to tell GGB gang the truth.
Oh, what is that?
I have leggings on under this dress.
I look absolutely...
I have big socks on.
Like, we are, it's all a
mirage, it's all an illusion, we don't really look like this. Like wait, my dress doesn't even zippered. Oh real nice. Nice. Hey GGB! What's up? Happy New Year! I thought we were saying happy birthday to someone.
I was like, oh no, I forgot.
All right, another confession.
Ari has the vid.
What vid?
The vid.
The COVID.
And I'm up in your grill like you don't have COVID.
I am risking it all to be close to my friend.
I'm here even when I got the COVID.
Tell me I ain't a real one.
You're a real one.
I was sick all through, all over the holidays.
This is our first-
Yeah, but the way you handle sickness,
I've never seen anything like it.
I had COVID for like two months.
I was at Pilates every day.
She has FOMO.
She can't, if her friends are doing stuff
and she's not there, she's sick to her stomach.
God's breaking it off for me.
People pleasing, FOMO.
Can you pray for that for me?
Because I really do get FOMO.
I can't stand it.
I'll be on my deathbed.
Like I'm pulling up to the party.
I have to, I gotta show up.
How was your holiday?
Without me.
I know, we were apart.
Well, my holidays were beautiful. I was with my family. How were your holidays? Without me. I know, we were apart. Well, my holidays were beautiful.
I was with my family.
How were your holidays?
Really good.
It's so funny how you, like, you go home and I'm like a grown woman and I turn into a complete
degenerate child.
Degenerate?
Degenerate someone who like does drugs?
Yeah, I was in the mean streets of Massachusetts, negative 16 degrees out.
Oh no.
I'm like every morning I'm like,
dad, I need this, help me.
He's just so fridges.
But it was so nice.
I actually really got some good time with my mom and dad.
And I spent New Year's with my nan.
We watched Cinderella.
Is that demonic?
Oh god, I get so nervous to say I'll watch anything,
because I'm like, are they going to yell at me?
Is Cinderella demonic?
I don't know.
I feel like I can't say boo.
There's a witch.
And I don't know.
It might be.
She's a good witch.
They do put witchcraft in the candy. So.
But yeah.
I'm so sorry what I've done to you.
I'm really so sorry.
I've given you religious OCD.
I just want us to be pure so bad.
I'm sure that was crazy.
Yeah.
But yeah.
It was sad, I can't believe we weren't together.
I can't.
When are we gonna spend Christmas together next year? You're gonna be married. No, okay
You know what? I can't wait to do what?
Be with our husbands that too. Oh, I can't wait. Yes at a hundred percent together
I can't wait to take Ari to Albania. Oh
Are we gonna we can't dance on tables anymore
obviously. In Albania you can dance
on tables. Okay we can. Cause it's so wholesome.
We're with my mom, it's not like a crazy
dance, it's like an Albanian dance. Okay.
It's like, oh ba, you know what I mean?
And so it's completely okay.
Do you think they'll think I'm Albanian? A hundred percent.
They will, right? Like, should I go with
it? I don't know cause
they'll love you for you. Alright, so I'll with it? I don't know, because they'll love you for you.
All right, so I'll go with, I'm from Boston,
I'm Dutch and Italian.
Dutch and Italian, but ask them, say,
would you let me be an Albanian?
They'll die over you.
OK, I'll say that.
Would you let me be an Albanian?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I'll say, um.
Why is your thing always coming at you?
Yeah.
It's the devil.
What's the word that I say?
What's the word that I say?
Oh, I should, uh, what's the word?
No, no, give me a word for Albanian.
Um, word for Albanian.
What?
Albanian word I could say to them.
Give me one.
What?
Give me one. Give me one.
Oh, wait, you know what it say? Te duasham.
Te duasham.
Te duasham.
Te duasham.
Means I love you so much.
Te duasham, my sisters and brothers.
Say, I love the accent.
Say, yesokrish.
Yesokrish.
Te don'tu.
Yesokrish, don'tu. Yes, I crash don't turn to yes
Japanese right
Those definitely your Chinese time over. Okay
This I'm so sorry about our Chinese tongues they just
I don't know
You know, I was I was in Nashville the other day, and this guy who does missions in many different
parts of the world, do you know what he said?
What?
Do you understand?
There's a whole spiritual life that we haven't even touched the surface yet.
This man was gifted 17 different tongues supernaturally.
He-
Oh, gosh, you're gonna see me.
No, you're gonna see me. No, you're gonna see us.
I can't wait. You have no idea the plans that God has for us. You and I, when all of this is over,
we're gonna be in other speaking countries and we're just gonna supernaturally be gifted the
language. So every single language has that language of tongues is what you're saying.
Well, so it's basically like they're given the language like they can speak in the language
So an American man who doesn't know any other language other than English is given the spirit
I got of Japanese Japanese tongue. Yeah, just little Japanese language. Yes, baby
That is God Spanish tongues. Yeah, okay Pasa. I don't know where
Yes Spanish tongues. Yeah, que pasa? Out of nowhere. No dos tres. Yes, maybe you got it.
Te amo.
I think God just gave it to you.
I think I have it.
Wow.
Hola.
I can't wait.
You have no idea.
You know what's funny about us, R,
is we couldn't have just taken the normal
cookie cutter Christian route,
like going to conferences.
No. No, we going to conferences. No.
No, we had to get so weird.
And we are like, we wanna see healings,
we wanna see demons deliver, like we wanna see it all.
But we also wanna go to Pilates
and we also wanna go eat branzino.
So we're literally the charismatic Valley girls.
Like- I actually love that. Are we Valley girls though? Are we down literally the charismatic valley girls. Like I actually love that.
Are we valley girls though? Are we down and dirty East Coast girls? Because I
don't think there's much valley in us honey. Oh baby I think we have a little bit of both.
Yes, down and dirty, East Coast, valley. We're real valley until you start honking at us.
Exactly. You know what I mean?
Or start messing with our families.
100%.
But it's like we're literally with our oat milk latte
and green juice on our way to Pilates.
Yes.
But we're gonna cast out a couple of demons along the way.
Oh, I've become a Stanley girl.
I forgot to tell you that.
Wow, not sponsored.
Not sponsored and obsessed.
So it was so-
Can you get me one?
Yeah, I will.
What color you want?
Not pink.
OK.
I'm just not really a pink girl.
Maybe black.
You have no idea.
I changed my life.
Let's go.
I now can drink water.
That's why you're glowing.
All right, well, before we get into this episode,
we might want to introduce ourselves.
This is the hardest part of the whole episode. Everybody says it's cringe
I'm just kidding one person. It's like one person says something and you always think you always take that
That hurt me. No, what did they say people have no idea how effective what did they say? The intro is cringe
They probably mean us
reading the Bible on the beach going
Sorry, anyways, we've got to stop self-deprecating
So anyways, hi, I'm Ange.
I'm Ari.
And this is Girls Gone Bible.
We are a faith-based podcast where we talk about Jesus, the Bible, mental health, relationships.
We love teaching from the Bible and we just love everything that has to do with Jesus.
We love the things of God.
He's changed our lives.
He saved our lives. We
were just a couple of lost, blind, I was stupid, I was foolish, I didn't know nothing, very,
very lost until Jesus legitimately saved our lives.
And we always say, come as you are, just don't stay that way.
Don't stay that way.
Don't.
Ouch.
Ouch.
And none of us are staying that way. Don't.
And none of us are staying that way.
No. We are all transforming week by week.
Hallelujah. I feel the Holy Ghost.
Can I just say how many tests?
I feel like we always see testimonies, but I've seen so many GGB gang testimonies recently.
I see so many people laying down big sin in their lives.
I see so many people getting sober, which is just the-
Oh, the so- that, that, I can't.
So many people getting sober. So many people laying down alcohol and smoking weed and all
the things that we're going to talk about it today. We're going to talk about pleasure today.
But I just like, I just want to say, I'm so proud of you guys. This is so cool. Ari and I are so proud of you. We love seeing
your messages. We love seeing you guys follow Jesus and like you're actually following Jesus.
It's so crazy. And just to let you know, seeing these stories puts a fire under us. And that's
why we are so hungry till every single week because we're like, OK, this is working.
So yeah, we're so proud of you guys.
I think before we get into today's episode,
there's something we need to talk about really quickly.
So yeah, I have seen a few comments of people
asking for us to address something.
So I'm not going to say the name of it because I really would rather not.
Like people look at it or look for it.
But I was in a film that I filmed over three years ago that got released this past year
a couple months ago.
And I've gotten a few messages about it.
And you know, some comments on YouTube and people asking,
why are you in a film this year that's like,
it's a horror film.
It has satanic symbols.
It's like a young adult horror film.
And this is obviously our first time doing this.
So we don't know sometimes if you address something
like this or what you say.
It's in the past. but I think it was really important
to address this specifically because since it was released
this year, people think I filmed it this year.
That is so not the case.
Filmed this over three years ago.
And yeah, I just...
So this movie that I was in that I filmed,
it's like, as I filmed, it's like,
as I said, it's a young adult horror film.
And I remember when I got this film, I thought I made it.
It was my first big lead in a feature film.
It was like at the time before knowing what I know now,
like the subject matter was really heavy and dark.
And for some reason I've always been cast in horror
and dark and like psychological thrillers,
like always on the dark side,
because that's kind of where you can like
really showcase your talent and stuff like that.
And so anyways, I get this film and I think that I made it.
It's the best thing of my life.
I thank Jesus up and down. I wrote a post thanking Jesus for it.
I just didn't know. I didn't know that this, like, you don't do things that don't glorify God.
I didn't know that you don't let yourself be involved in anything that's dark.
Our mission on earth is to bring heaven down and not to bring hell up, to not do things that
are demonic or satanic or provocative or anything like that.
So I just wanted to tell a little part of the story.
So after starting Girls Gone Bible, and even after starting Girls Gone Bible, I still was
holding on to my old life a little bit of being like, I don't even know what
it means to fully let my life go.
I was so scared, I didn't want to let go of acting, I didn't want to let go of...
I didn't know what that would be like, I didn't know what that meant for me.
And so when I first started Girls Gone Bible, and I'm going deeper in my faith and deeper
in my faith, and I get around really good Christian people,
and I gain community, and I start getting plugged
into a church, and my eyes are opening to the reality
that you can't, there's a standard that you have to live by,
and holiness and purity and light is the standard.
And so as I start having this realization, all that's on my mind all the time is this standard. And so as I start having this realization,
all that's on my mind all the time is this movie.
And I'm like, oh no.
I'm begging God every day, please Jesus tank the film,
tank the film.
So often in entertainment, like in film,
things either don't get made or they flop
and no one ever sees it.
And so I'm just begging God,
just don't let it even get made or just let it like no one ever sees it. And so I'm just begging God like, just don't let
it even get made or just let it flop, let it tank. Like don't let anything come from it, like protect
me. That's how I thought I was begging him to protect me in this way. And then one day I got a
call that not only did the film get bought, but it got bought by Paramount.
And like instantly Doom takes over my whole body.
And I just feel God pressing and be like, don't get anxious.
I'm in it. I'm in it. I didn't leave you.
I'm in it like I'm in this with you.
And then a little time goes by and I see the, somebody tags me in the trailer.
And like I see myself in it and it's so crazy because usually like you don't have your past
like in your face like that all the time.
And it was just like, as soon as I saw it, I obviously like got a little anxious right
away because I'm looking at a girl who's not me
anymore. I can't even recognize her and it's like uncomfortable to see and I just feel
the delight of God like come over me completely and I feel him pressing in and being like,
look at what I've done. Look at what I've done. Look at what I've done.
And I start bawling my eyes out, not because I'm ashamed, but because I feel the joy and the delight
of God wash over me. And He's like, how are you going to be ashamed at your testimony, the
testimony of what I've done, the testimony that I do what I say I'm going to do. I said in my word, I take
you out of darkness and I bring you into the light and I've done that. And you know, I'm
like, okay, God, but what about what people say? And he's like, when have I ever cared
about what people say? And that's not to say because Ari and I are in a different position
than other people. We are like leaders in a sense and we are responsible and accountable and held to a higher standard than like, you know,
someone who's not in ministry. But yeah, I just, that is the truth of what went on
with that and I just want to say to anyone who, you know, felt like disappointed
or anything, I'm genuinely so sorry. I'm so sorry. It sucks. Anything that's going to discredit,
like, yeah, I have to deal with my own shame, but then it's so much bigger than that. I'm like,
Jesus, I'm so sorry that my mistakes would ever discredit the work that you're doing,
the work that Ari's doing. So I'm really sorry. And you can guarantee I will never be a part of anything that does
not glorify God ever again.
That was years ago and sorry it just came out in ya.
I am.
I don't know.
I just love you.
I love you.
I'm so incredibly proud of you. It is so hard to see myself, but to get to see you
in this transformation and the fact that you're even feeling
this way about your past is just,
I'm so sorry that you feel like this.
And I'm just so proud of you.
Love you so much.
Thank you.
You're so cute. I love you so much. Thank you. You're so cute. I love you so
much. You really are the best person in the world. I love you so much. Yeah, it's so... You have
nothing to be ashamed about. I told her that today. I got so... She gets so worked up. I get so worked up over it, you know, because it's so hard.
It's so hard.
It's so hard.
We, you're so ignorant to things.
Even sometimes when you're following Jesus, you're ignorant to things.
And it's like then one day you get hit in the face with the truth of it, and then you
have to deal with your past and you feel all the shame and God is just like,
it's okay.
I know.
You know, look at what I've done.
I know.
So.
I think it's like just so interesting for us
to have like a digital footprint of.
It's what it is.
I know.
I know.
I go through the same things.
I know.
Even sometimes like I literally,
I feel like I've gone through so many rounds of my Instagram of like taking stuff down. I know. Even sometimes like I literally I feel like I've gone through
so many rounds of my Instagram of like taking stuff down and then I constantly
am like how did I not? I want to delete it all. Like how did I you know so it's
just I just kind of I just want you guys to know and I think that you know this
by now like holiness and purity are our number one things. We care for nothing
except being righteous, holy, and pure in God's eyes. And yeah, this is a testament to God does
what he says he's going to do. He changes you. He gives you a new heart. He gives you a new mind.
He changes everything about you from the inside out. Even sometimes watching our clips from our first few episodes.
We look different, our eyes are different.
Just everything about us is different.
And it's gut wrenching sometimes.
I'm like, oh, she still had so much, so far to go.
She still, she loved him so much,
but she was holding on to this false sense of whatever, you know?
And there's some things that still had to die even at the beginning of us starting this.
So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts, both of us, for the grace that you've given us.
You've given us so much grace.
So much.
You've never judged us.
That's why what we have is special, like no other thing, like
no other podcast or I don't know what other podcasts have, but I know with this, it's
just this family of no judgment and grace and it's made us just feel so safe and so
accepted and that's why we can share with you our deepest, darkest insecurities in life
because we trust you and there's nothing better than having trust with a family and you guys just
really are our family and we love you so much. GGB, we are on the Girls Gone Bible live tour.
It is so exciting to be with you guys on person. Go to girlsgombible.com slash
tour to get your tickets. We cannot wait to be with you in person. So as you guys know,
we have GGB+. It is been one of the biggest blessings this year starting GGB+, because
it gives us a chance to really just go so intimate and deep with you guys, talk about things that we typically can't really share
on this platform.
So it is just, it's so, this is exactly what we wanted.
We wanted something where we can really go deep
and really talk about the nitty gritty stuff.
You can sign up at girlsgombible.com slash plus.
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all right ladies and gentlemen let's get into it the meaning of life the meaning
of life get down so today we're gonna read from Ecclesiastes I think when I
first started my faith I was calling it like elastic-easies.
Elastic-easies.
I love that.
Let's talk a little bit about Solomon.
So Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes almost 3,000 years ago, but his message is probably more
relevant today than it even was then. Ecclesiastes is like a critical essay or an analysis
of life's true meaning.
Solomon was this guy who had all the wealth, all the
intelligence, all of the power, all of the everything
that you could possibly have as a normal human.
He acquired all of it and gets to the end of his life.
And he writes this whole,
this is like his sermon and his entire message is everything is empty without God. And he doesn't
realize that until the end and so all of the entire book of Ecclesiastes sounds so pessimistic
and so sad, but it's on purpose. He's trying to convey the message that this is what life is without God.
Which is most of our testimonies.
Tell them.
Yeah. That's all I could. It's most of our testimonies.
Yeah, I know. I wrote down these words, empty, futile, which means useless, hollow, nothing.
This sounds really sad and disappointing, but that is how most people experience life.
Vain.
And so vain.
Yeah.
They are running around grasping for power, for pleasure, for purpose, for all of these
things and come up shore every single time because you can't find it in anything other
than sweet Jesus.
That's right.
So we're on Ecclesiastes 1.1.
Everything is meaningless, says the teacher, completely meaningless.
What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.
The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.
The wind blows south and then turns north.
Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full.
Then the water returns again to description.
No matter how much we see, we never are satisfied.
No matter how much we hear, we are never content. History merrily
repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly
new. Some people say, here is something new, but actually it is old. Nothing is
ever truly new. We don't remember what happened in the past and in the future
generations. No one will remember what we are doing now.
We're gonna skip ahead.
Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse one,
it says the futility of pleasure.
I said to myself, come on, let's try pleasure.
Let's look for the good things in life.
But I found that this too was meaningless.
So I said, laughter is silly.
What good does it to seek pleasure?
After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom,
I clutched at foolishness. That is what it's like, that is truly what it's like being in the world.
Whenever you try to be wise apart from God, you end up being foolish. In this way, I try to experience the only happiness most
people find during their brief life in this world. The only happiness that most people find during
this brief life in this world is a type of happiness that is empty, fleeting, momentary,
and does not bring true satisfaction. I also try to find meaning by building huge homes for myself. Listen, this is literally
3000 years ago and it's the same today. It is so crazy. The same. I also tried to find
meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens
and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves.
I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household.
I also owned large herds, flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem
before me.
I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings
and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful
concubines, which means an endless amount of intimate physical pleasure. I had everything
a man could desire. So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me.
Anything I wanted, I would take.
I denied myself no pleasure," which, by the way, is the opposite,
that is in direct opposition to the message that Jesus teaches.
Jesus says, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me.
Solomon said he denied himself no pleasure.
Everything that he wanted wanted he could have.
I even found great pleasure in hard work,
a reward for all my labors.
But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard
to accomplish, it was all so meaningless.
Like chasing the wind,
there was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
It's nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
Drop it, drop the mic, Solomon. It's crazy, it's crazy.
3000 years ago, how is it when somebody tells me
that the Bible is outdated and it was written so long ago
and times changed, nobody,
the word of the Lord stands forever.
It's the same, like it applies even more today. It's so crazy.
I want you guys to understand that, and I want you to listen to me so closely,
this is literally my story. Like I, when I read this story, I said, wow, this is my testimony, this is, and sometimes we have no,
we have no idea even what we're doing.
We have, this is what we think life is.
I am so unbelievably sick of it
now that I'm on the other side of it.
I need everybody to listen to us.
I spent my life searching for love and peace
and fulfillment, and I come to LA and I'm like going to the bone
in this acting industry and trying to make something
of myself and fighting for a career
because I think once I'll get there,
I'll finally have security and peace and love.
And I think once I get to that relationship
and I finally have that person, I
will reach to the point of feeling secure and loved.
And I will be, once I get that house, and once I get,
we're all sitting here creating vision boards and putting
houses and cars and all these desires that we want.
And we're manifesting.
Now we're trying to manifest.
Now we're watching TED Talks on how to manifest things and we're manifesting. Now we're trying to manifest. Now we're watching TED Talks
on how to manifest things and think in your mind and we are living in deception. And that is why
everybody is empty and depressed and they wake up and they're living but they aren't truly alive
because that is what the world is now. There is nothing that you should truly desire more than Christ. I'm saying that
because I lived it. And especially for the young people, I look back at my 20s and I'm like,
it went in a blip. I am chasing these things that ended up making me feel so empty. And let me tell
you something, I had it. I had the career. I had a relationship, I had it. And I had never felt
so empty and depleted and I'm like, man, I have this stuff, but why do I feel this is why I preach
about peace so much because I never, not for even a second, maybe fleeting piece of the world when I was living in sin or when I had that fun relationship
or I was going out.
Then I get home, the feeling in your stomach,
you guys know I always preach about this.
I never felt any peace.
It was chaos, 24 hours a day in my mind,
just eating me alive everywhere in my body, my whole life.
And I know so many of you guys feel that same
way. But this is why. Because you think if you get to this place and you're going to
get to that place and listen to me and listen to me carefully, you are going to be so empty
in your soul. The only thing that you should desire is Christ. It's the only thing that
will ever fulfill you.
You get to a point where it breaks your heart so badly that like you just can't,
like you can't even be around it anymore.
Like the priorities that people have.
And this is like, I am not even remotely judging by any means.
I know how hard this walk is.
I know what the world pushes on us.
I know how difficult it is.
So I am not coming from a place of condemnation even slightly.
And neither is Ari.
We literally just want you guys to know that there's so much more,
so much more that God has for you than the things
that you're chasing right now.
And we pray for you guys every single day
that your eyes would open to the truth of the reality of the world
that we're living in.
Because truly, we live in a world of complete self-indulgence. It's completely self-centered.
It's completely centered around pleasure. And I'm here, and Ari is here, to let you guys know
that pleasure is not the meaning of life. It's not the meaning of life. The meaning of life is seeking Jesus, obeying God,
pursuing the things of God, not pursuing the pleasures of life. I heard a pastor say that
chasing pleasure is like chasing a beast. When you corner it, it turns around and it devours you.
That's what pleasure does. That's what succumbing to the flesh does. Our flesh is, I want you guys to understand something.
So yes, the devil is at work, Satan is at work
trying to tempt you, trying to do this,
but it's not just Satan, it's your flesh.
Your flesh has desires and wants and needs,
and all of our flesh is hardwired to go towards pleasure.
We want pleasure, we want what feels good. That's why the Christian
walk is completely geared toward and centered around crucifying the flesh. You know what
I've been doing recently to overcome temptation? I swear I've done this. When I'm having moments
where I feel like I am so about self-sacrifice right now. My word for 2025 is sacrifice. I want to sacrifice. The
way is getting more narrow. Every day it's more and more narrow. And the things that
we take with us, there are things that aren't even inherently evil, but because it's getting
so small, there's so much that we can't take with us. And so I am learning to sacrifice
everything, everything that is not something
of God, everything and anything that does not lead me towards Jesus, I have to get rid
of. That's people, that's things, that's movies, music, desires, that's everything,
everything, ways of living, ways of dressing, ways of speaking, everything has got to go
because it's the little compromises and it's the little things
that we do that inhibit us from reaching our full potential in Jesus and our relationship with Him.
So I've been taking, I metaphorically, I say, God, I'm taking my flesh, I'm taking it and I am
nailing it to the cross and I nail it and I say, kill it, kill my flesh, Jesus. I don't want it.
I am governed by the Spirit of God. I am not governed by the desires Kill my flesh, Jesus. I don't want it. I am governed by the Spirit of God.
I am not governed by the desires of my flesh because my flesh is inherently sinful and
it wants the things of this world.
And the truth is that God has so much for all of us.
He has so much He wants to show us.
He has so much He wants to speak to us, but He cannot get to us if we are choosing things
of pleasure over the things of God.
If we are prioritizing the things of the flesh, the things of the world, the things of pleasure
over God, then we are at enmity against God and he cannot speak to us.
He can't answer our prayers.
He can't do the things that he should be doing for us, that He wants to do for us, because we
have put a barricade between us saying, I'm choosing the things that feel good momentarily
instead of the things of God.
And this is why we're so fired up, because we know what it's like to choose sacrifice.
We know what it's like to say, you know what?
There is a massive Christian world out there that says, you can, you'll get to heaven.
You can have a relationship with Jesus and we're not, none of us are perfect.
And that's okay.
God knows that.
Yes.
But also then you get to a place of maturity where you say, I am abandoning the things
of the world.
I am forsaking all others and I'm giving myself fully to you God
Because all of us want power from God if you don't want power from God
You're missing a major part of your faith
God the Holy Spirit is here to empower us and release power
But God can't give you power if Jesus doesn't have the affections of your heart
You are robbing yourself of so much that God has for you when Jesus doesn't have your heart fully.
Jesus, He's a jealous God. I was literally just in Deuteronomy this morning where He's talking about He's a jealous God and He, God will not share His glory with idols.
He will not share His glory with anything. He wants you fully. He wants your heart. He wants your affection.
He wants your desire.
And the best, safest place that you can be is when you give yourself fully to God.
And these little moments of denying yourself pleasure, that's why fasting is one of the
best things you can do.
That's why waking up earlier than you normally would and sacrificing an hour of sleep to spend time in the
Word, spend time abiding in the presence of God. Sacrifice. Life is not about pleasure. Life is about sacrifice.
And then you get pleasure when you sacrifice. Amen. That's why I love in verse 14, he just goes on to say, God's purpose is that people should fear Him.
And that is, for me, that is when, and you, that's when our faith really started, is when
we began to fear Him.
And that He says that all throughout the Bible, I pray that you will fear me because when you fear him, when you have that revelation of,
Oh my gosh, I want to live for you. What have I been doing this whole time? I'm chasing all these things.
I love you. And you fear him by spending time with him. How can you respect someone you don't know?
How can you fear someone you don't know? How can you fear someone you don't know? How can you fear someone you don't spend time with?
And I'm not talking about a couple hours on Sundays.
I'm not talking about 20 minutes in prayer or a couple of verses here and there.
I'm talking about when I stopped making vision boards of these goals that I wanted.
I'm so passionate about this because this was literally my life.
And so when I really got to the place of, okay, who are you? And I started to really
ask him, can you show me who you are? Can you reveal yourself to me? And he started
to heal me through these scriptures. He started to change my whole mind. And he took me out of the pit through his word.
And I was like, he loved me through,
even when I was acting up in Girls Gone Bible
from the beginning.
And I'm like, I love you.
How have I been acting this way?
And so if you are someone who is still your mind,
and I understand because I was, even when I started Girls Gone Bible, I was still chaotic, I was still chasing, I was still on like searching for things.
But it wasn't until I had the revelation of, I respect you, I love you, I want to live for you. Yeah. Is when everything started changing. And the way to do that is instead of devoting your time to money and wealth,
I talk about money because that is what society is all about now.
It's about wealth.
And when you devote your time to Him, you don't care about anything else.
So true.
And that's when you're free.
That's when that peace.
I have lately been going through some things and do you
understand what it's like to be going through hell but still be in peace in your mind? That's
the gift that we get when we decide to lay everything down and devote ourselves to Him.
We get Him. We get salvation. We get freedom. And we get eternity with Him. We're
suffering right now here. Like everything is such a blip, but we don't think about on the other side
of when we die. Yeah. And so eternity is so much longer than this life that we're living right now.
And that is what that's what we should be living for. We should be living for, how am I doing right now to get to... How can I be the best person I can be to get a well done that when I am standing face to face
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I'm really similar to Ari to where I have spent my whole life just begging God in prayer so selfishly.
Every single one of my prayers were so unbelievably selfish.
Jesus, give me this.
Jesus, give me that.
Jesus, I need to be successful.
Jesus, I need to book this job.
I need to make this money.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And God, I'll never forget when Socrates said to me, he goes, I called him.
And I was like, Socrates, I need to book this job
and you have to pray for me.
And Socrates is like, you need to let God's will be done
in your life.
You need to pray.
He's like, I don't even want you to pray
for things for yourself anymore.
I want you to just pray,
God, what would you have for me today?
That is when my entire life changed. And I just want you guys to know that, God, what would you have for me today? That is when my entire life changed.
And I just want you guys to know that, like Ari said,
we live in a world that is so money driven
and so money hungry.
And I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that money
and success and amazing things brings you
no satisfaction whatsoever.
Of course it does.
Of course it brings a level of fulfillment.
Of course it brings a level of confidence, but it is not
Sustainable. That's the point. It is you reach a certain level of success or money or fame. Ask anybody who has
accomplished anything in their lives that it's great for a moment and then it's not enough and then you're chasing the next thing and
then you have to go higher and then it has to be more.
And I just want to speak from personal experience.
We've clearly had success with Girls Gone Bible.
It's been so special.
It has given me a level of fulfillment that I never thought that I would acquire in my
life.
It has given me purpose.
It's made me feel like I know why I was put on the earth. And the more success that we've
had, the more I beg God to be close to me. Because the more success we have, I am telling you guys
right now, the emptier it feels. The more eyes you have on you, the more insecure it makes you.
And I beg Jesus, like Ari said,
no matter how much success I will ever have,
nothing compares to those moments where God touches you.
Nothing that I did in my day today that was successful
or that was an accomplishment or an achievement,
nothing compared the moment where I woke up,
I get in the secret place and God immediately shows, and I can tell I have no idols,
I have nothing that's standing in between me and God right now, and He came immediately.
That is success. Nothing comes close to a touch from God.
Nothing.
That is all that matters. And there have been moments in this time of doing Girls Gone Bible and of everything
where I've been really tired. I've been, you know, I've never lost my first love. I love
Jesus with everything that is in me. But there have been moments where I've been really tired.
There have been moments where I've almost gotten to spiritual burnout. There have been
moments where I was at capacity, and there were moments where I felt like I couldn't get to Him. And I can't
tell you how many times, every time that that has happened to me that I feel like because
of the things He's given me, I can't get to Him. And it's like this weird thing because
the more blessing, it's felt sometimes like the more blessing
that I've had almost the further I've gotten from Him and I yell and I scream and I say,
take every bit of it away. I am not going to have the blessings of God without having God.
I don't want it. If this is what it feels like to have everything, but to not have you and having everything
means literally nothing, and I'm in the most pain I've ever been, bye.
No.
Absolutely not.
And I'm not, this is not false humility.
This is not us being like, this is what the Bible says.
This is the God honest truth.
If tomorrow I am living in a cardboard box with no success ever for the rest of my life,
but I have the presence of God, the very presence of God that changed my entire life, that met
me in my bedroom when I was 25 years old.
If I don't have that, I don't want any of this.
But if I have nothing else, but I have the presence of God, I don't need anything else and
I'm good. I'm good. It's true. And I love that you say that about you have felt so empty because
the same. And like people say, what does it feel like to be on stage and to all these things? And
I said nothing compares to when I am in that room on my hands and
knees and I feel Him touch my heart. That is when I feel fulfilled. It's not and it's
the craziest thing because it's what I've wanted my whole life. You know, I've dreamed
of this and we say this because it's the truth. We are living it right now.
It's like there's nothing like when you are by yourself,
just with Him.
You know that you're maturing as a follower of Jesus
when your passion for Him is growing more
than your desire for pleasure.
Like you know that when you start wanting,
when you know when you start to love obedience and you start to love sacrifice,
that's when you know you're doing something right.
And it's okay if you're still in a time where you're still holding on to your life and you're still not there yet. It's okay.
It is a journey. We didn't get there overnight.
But I just, our whole point in doing this is for you to know about the
heart of God and the character of God and what He's really like and what He wants from
you and this is what He wants from you.
You're gonna get to a point, and I'm gonna speak this over you guys, you're gonna get
to a point where you're gonna love sacrifice so much that it's gonna feel good to do the
things that don't feel good, as opposed to giving into the things that do feel good to
the flesh and to the mind
and the pride of life and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.
Instead of giving into those things because that feels good, you're going to get to a
point where sacrificial, self-sacrificing obedience is going to feel so good because you're going
to know and it's different and it's a satisfaction that builds you up and it empowers you every time
that I make and there's so much that I wish I could talk about that I just can't talk about yet
but I've made some decisions in my life that have been so crazy so hard and I never thought that I'd
get to this point and do you know what it's like to get into like the secret place and look God in
the face and be like I never thought that I could like, I never thought that I could do this.
I never thought that I'd be this person.
I never thought that I'd get to this point,
but I literally love you so much and you, you, you,
because it's not out of my own love.
I'm not this person because I can love you enough to do it.
Because you love me as much as you do,
your love has changed me.
Your life has transformed me.
It has washed me.
It has clothed me in righteousness.
So I have become this person who chooses sacrifice
and things that are painful over the things
that seemingly feel good, because nothing feels better
than looking God in the face and being like,
I know you're nodding at me right now.
I know you are.
And that's why we told the story in the beginning
about with that in the film and everything.
It's hard and life is hard.
And you might be in a situation where your past
is so, so prevalent and so heavy in your life.
And you're feeling like, you know what?
I don't even know if I can get to that point
because I have so much shame
and I've chosen pleasure for so long.
Right now in this very moment,
wherever you are, at whatever time you're watching this, now is the most beautiful moment
for repentance and turning towards the things of God in a way from pleasure.
Right now is the best moment.
It's never too late.
You're never too far gone.
He loves you so much and He's been waiting for this very moment with you to say,
here I am, here you are. We're turning around and we're pursuing the things of God together because it's just so worth it. And that's what we did. And you know, some of us are struggling
right now and you're like, but I am struggling with money, but I need a job, but I need a career,
but I have been single for so many years and it's coming to the time of
I need to meet someone. I know I have been there. I have been in the trenches of being 30 and being
like, I have nothing. What now? God literally stripped every single thing, like everything.
He took it away and He took it away all at once. So I know what it feels like to feel like I have nothing to live for.
I don't have a job.
I don't have money.
Like I am struggling and that I want to just let you know that that is the place that he gets to work.
Sometimes he allows these storms and these struggles to come into your life because it's the only way that you will find him.
That's the only way that He can get to your heart
is through these storms of struggling with money,
of struggling in your sickleness.
It's, if He didn't do that with me,
I would have never found Him.
I would have never, like, it's so funny.
I know I always talk about Job, but Job, at the end,
he said, I have heard about you,
but now I see you with my eyes.
When you go through these dark times and you learn how to suffer well, you see him with
your face and you say, I want to live for you.
That is why I feel for people that are struggling because I was, I mean, I was in the worst
place of my life.
I could, I almost didn't make it,
but it ended up being the greatest thing
that ever happened to me,
because that is how I found Jesus,
and that's what kept me hungry,
to stay dependent on Him.
And so...
Sweet Jesus.
So that is, yeah, so just, I know it's hard.
I know we all have been there.
We all chase them.
We've all been, we've all done it.
We're all guilty of it.
We want you guys to get to the place
where you are free, free of depression,
free of anxiety, free of trying to live by your own will,
free of trying to make a God out of money
and you're being your own God in your own life.
Just free of it all. When you are free of that, you live a life of peace.
We are not supposed to be just barely hanging on in life.
He called us higher. We are supposed to live for Him.
Do you know the freedom of not living for yourself?
Exactly.
It's freedom. It's peace.
I talk about peace because when you have peace,
you know how to live well, you know how to suffer well, you know how to handle things,
you know how to navigate life, even when you're in a difficult time. And so when we start
to lay all that down and make Him, focus on Him before all these other things, that's
when life begins.
I love that so much R.
Like, seriously,
you know, as you're talking,
you know what comes into my mind?
I'm thinking, this moment right now,
as weird as this might sound,
like your destiny is connected to this moment.
In this moment, if you receive the revelation of what it means to crucify your flesh, abandon
your desire for pleasure, and pursue the things of God, you can ask yourself in this moment,
like do you want the things that are momentarily pleasurable, or do you want your destiny? Because the two, like you get to a point
where if you really want to live, like you want to live the life that God
intended you to live and you want to get to a spiritual place, like spiritual
success, spiritual riches are the success of life. It is not how much pleasure you
can experience but it's about how much spiritual
gain you can acquire. And so you have to ask yourself, is this moment of pleasure more
important than my spiritual destiny and my life's destiny? Because every moment you have
a choice, every moment that you forsake pleasure and you choose Jesus, I'm telling you something. There's something so significant
for every little sacrifice that you make, every little moment of obedience. There's
so much blessing and favor in God's goodness that follows. And that is what I'm here to
tell you today, is that forsaking pleasure and choosing Jesus opens you up to the life
that God intended for you to live.
And that's what happened in our lives. It's when we completely said, okay, we don't know,
and we say this all the time, but we'll say it one more time. He will lead you into the path of
where you're supposed to go, the purpose of what you're supposed to do, who you're supposed to be
with. But you have to lay it
down and stop trying to be your own God and follow your own will because you're always going to end
up in living in a disaster. So good. It's so good. And you know what that reminds me of? Living in a
disaster. Yeah. I have a couple of examples from scripture of people in the Bible, mighty people of God who decided I'm choosing God over pleasure.
This is my favorite episode we've ever done because this is our, I get a kick.
I get, I love, I love this.
I love this because for me personally, I love anything that the world says to do.
And then we do the opposite.
It's the little rebel in me, it's the Peter in me,
it's the little like my rebellious nature was always,
it's so funny, whatever the enemy meant for evil,
God truly uses for good.
My rebellious nature growing up in my whole life
got me into so much trouble,
but then the second Jesus gets ahold of me,
he says, I'm gonna take your weakness
and I'm gonna fine tune it and I'm to use it for your good in my glory. And like whatever the
world tells me to do, whatever the world says, this is good, indulge, do what makes you happy.
This is the way to life. Like I saw the Golden Globes the other day and I'm just like, I didn't
watch it, but I saw it like, you know, on Instagram and I'm watching them with no judgment whatsoever.
I pray for these people because I love them.
They're God's children and I want them to be saved, but I'm looking at these people.
It is so self-glorifying, so self-just...
And I just want to say one thing really quickly.
This episode is all about
forsaking pleasure and pursuing God. That does not mean that life can't be fun or good or
pleasurable in a sense. It's simply about what your idol is, what you're prioritizing,
and what matters to you and where your heart is. Where your heart is, that's what matters. It's the state of your heart.
If I've learned anything in the last couple of months
of my life, I've learned that it's all about the heart.
It's not about what you do, what you say, where you go.
It's about what's in your heart.
And is it pure?
Is your heart pure in this?
This morning, after a lot of traveling,
I booked a session to go to the sauna,
to decompress and take this time. It's like a luxury of traveling, I went to, I booked a session to go to the sauna, to decompress and take this time.
It's like a luxury of life for sure.
I got to do this whole thing.
That was pleasure.
Like that was like a luxury of life.
That was pleasurable, but that is not my priority in life.
Do you guys understand what I'm saying?
You can enjoy nice things.
You can go nice places.
You can wear nice dresses.
You can like, it's just about your heart.
What has your affection?
What has your attention?
Who is on the throne of your heart?
That's what matters.
Who's on the throne?
If Jesus isn't on the throne, we have a massive, massive problem.
I think about Joseph.
Joseph is a servant in Potiphar's house.
We know this.
Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph, tries to come on to him,
tries to do all this stuff. Joseph flees. And Ari and I always say, when temptation arises, you flee.
And by the way, temptation will always arise. Even Jesus was tempted, and we'll get to that.
Temptation will always arise. But it's about having the power and the maturity to flee from temptation. When temptation arises, you pursue God's purposes
over power and pleasure. And so Joseph refused Potiphar's wife saying, how then could I do such
a wicked thing and sin against God? And Paul, I love this so much. Paul had once been a Pharisee
and he had a position of prestige and respect within the Jewish community.
He was a very successful religious person and he gave up everything to become a slave
for Christ.
He always says that.
He always says, I am a slave for Christ and he is so happy.
And he's so happy.
He went from having a very pleasurable, powerful life And he said, I would rather follow God. And
he always says that he considered everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus, his Lord. So spiritual riches, again, over earthly gain. It's more
important for what is happening in us spiritually than what is happening in us earthly and in
our material possessions and all of that stuff.
And the last one really quick, Jesus Christ.
The perfect example of choosing
the things of God over pleasure.
You guys know that Jesus is fasting for 40 days
in the wilderness and he's obviously very hungry.
Satan knows that he comes and he tempts him.
And he says, command this stone be turned to bread.
And Jesus replies and says, man shall, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Jesus is tempted three times, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
All three ways he fights with scripture. And we know this, and I know you've heard this probably in a thousand sermons
that he fought him with scripture, but if Jesus fought with scripture
how much more should we be fighting with scripture?
Satan always wants to come, his middle name is Shortcuts.
No, his first middle name is Loser, his second middle name is Shortcuts.
Satan, Loser, Shortcuts. He loves shortcuts,
but God loves the long road,
the righteous road that you don't just get things when you want them and how you want them. But
Satan will always present power, pleasure, and glory to you with a shortcut. But God says,
pursue the things of me, pursue what I'm asking you to do. Prioritize my purposes, my plans for your life over pleasure and power.
Thank you Jesus for your Word. This is not opinion. If we gave you our opinion it would mean nothing.
This is the Word of God who has given us everything and taught us how to live.
We were chasing the things of the world, relationships, careers, thinking it is going to fulfill us,
and it always left us aching and leaving us empty and searching.
And now, though we struggle and though we go through pain, we know how to handle it
well and we still have the peace of God that is within us. Because we don't, we know the truth.
We know the truth and the truth is not in chasing these things
that are fleeting, that aren't gonna last,
that you cannot bring with you to eternity.
Sorry, I was thinking, I'm so sorry.
You said we struggle more now.
I was thinking to myself, I don't know,
I struggled a lot when I was drinking.
No, no, no, no, you're right.
I just had a vision of me when I was drinking.
I was like, she was struggling.
But the truth is, you're struggling, me too.
But the truth is, guys, it's sacrificial,
but it's, and you think I have to give up all these things
and it's not gonna be fun.
You guys have no idea what you're missing out on.
You're missing out on the fruit of life. I promise you. I just love
you guys.
We love you guys so much. Just to wrap everything up, life is about sacrifice and obedience.
If I can encourage you with anything, it's to every single moment. I pray right now that
God would open your spiritual eyes to see when there's a fork in the road. I pray pray over you guys right now, and I know that this is going to come up a lot in
your life, so get ready for it, receive it.
God is going to open your eyes to these moments of forks in the road in your life where you
have an option to choose pleasure, to choose your flesh, to choose the desires that your
body and your mind and your pride wants.
And then He's going to give you an option for sacrifice and obedience, and he's going to show you and he's going to train you how to
distinguish these two things, because sometimes you don't even know.
Sometimes things are innocent and you don't even know that you have an option for obedience,
but God is going to open your eyes and he's going to do this for you and he's going to
train you.
This is your training season.
I love you so much.
Ari loves you so much. Can I just say one last thing? If you made it to the end,
you're a real one. And I just want to ask you guys, would you be praying for us? If you could
be praying for us for the podcast, first of all, just for our own hearts, for our own minds,
just protection over us and over the tour.
If you guys could intercede for us, that would mean the world.
On days, if you see we have a tour day,
and we're on tour that day, that weekend,
and if you could be interceding,
if you could be praying for us,
that would mean everything to us.
Literally, I'm asking you, I'm asking you as a friend
if you could be praying for us,
if you could be interceding for us,
because we need it, we need you. May the Lord truly bless you and keep you.
May Jesus make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he turn his face towards you
and give you peace. Peace. Shalom. Shalom. We'll see you next time. of wireless on you every chance I get. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
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