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Come on, can we put our hands together for Angela and Ariel? Y'all are going to do amazing tonight. Thank you.
Guys, is this on? Is mine on? Okay, okay. Oh, mine's on too. Okay, guys, thank you so much for coming. First of all, thank you, Vu. Thank you, Pastor Rich. Thank you, Pastor DC. We were already going to come to VuCon ourselves, so when they asked us to come and be involved, Ari and I didn't even understand. We were like, why? We're so honored to be here, truly. I'm sitting
here looking at all you guys and I'm just like this doesn't feel real like we are so grateful for you guys thank you for you know I cry every single podcast I'll try not to cry tonight you know me but thank you guys oh man how are you guys you guys live here Miami is it I think we're moving here I'm not kidding here should we
We love it here. We feel free. Free. We're out of the devil's pen in LA. Okay, so this is also going to go on our channel later, so if you guys don't mind, we're going to introduce ourselves. Hi, guys. I'm Ange. And I'm Ari. And this is Girls Gone Bible.
We are live at Vucon in Miami, Florida. We have a room full of the cutest people I've ever seen in my life. And, you know, Ari and I have been praying about tonight for probably two months when we found out we were going to come and speak. And this is our first time speaking, like, at a church, pretty much. And as most of you know, if you know us at all, we didn't grow up in the church. We are only, you know, a year and a half saved, a few years saved. And we're going to be talking about
And so Ari and I were wondering, what could we talk to church people about things that they don't know yet? Like we were winning, so we've been praying and we've been praying. And we have come to the idea of today we're going to talk about fake faith. Yeah, let's do it. We gotta do it.
And so Ari and I have a unique perspective, I think, on faith in general, on Christianity, and on Jesus because we didn't grow up in this. And so I think we have some things to share with you guys on what this has been like kind of coming from the outside looking in.
And, yeah, anything else before we read? I think we're good. Let's get into it. What story are we reading today? This is so cool. We're doing our podcast with all you guys. This is crazy. This is so crazy. And I just want you guys to know that when Ari and I are nervous, we lose the ability to read. So good luck to us right now. We laugh. You already know. You see it. It's all we do. If we stumble, if we stumble, just know we didn't. Okay.
So we're going to read out of Acts chapter 5 today. And it's so funny because we had a friends and family lunch this morning where Pastor Rich literally brought up the story of these two people, Ananias and Sapphira.
And he was talking about how these are two people that you don't want to be like, and you'll know why in a second. But he also preached a little message this morning on the pressure that we feel from the outside world to do big things. And the pressure that people are like, it has to be big, it has to be big, what are you doing that's big? And it was so funny that he said that this morning, because it spoke to exactly what we're going to talk about today, where God...
There is so much impact and so much influence and so much importance in the little moments. And God works in obscurity all the time. And so just because something might not be big doesn't mean it's not impactful. And God is way more concerned with the state of our heart, our character, our integrity, than how we look and how we're perceived by the outside world. And so...
Ananias and Sapphira. This is a tough story. Let's jump into it. Why don't you read? Okay. But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming that it was the full amount. And with his wife's consent, he kept the rest.
Then Peter said, Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not to sell as you wished, and after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us, but to God. You want to go? Yeah.
As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, Was this the price you and your husband received for your land? Yes, she replied, that was the price.
And Peter said,
Can I pray really quick? Do you guys mind? Jesus, we love you so much. We love you. We love you. And we love that you are a God who's in the room with us right now. Jesus, I ask that you open our hearts to receive your word. Give us interpretation and understanding of your word. And let these words that we read not just be information, but show us the revelation behind the things that we read, Jesus.
I ask that you open the hearts of every single person in this room and the ones that will be watching later, and that we will not leave here the same, God, that you would instill in us a true, authentic, real spirit of faith, and that you would set our hearts on fire for you. Holy Spirit, let there be no limit to how much you can move here tonight, and above all else, do not let Ari and I get in your way. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen.
So, this story of Ananias and Sapphira, it's a little intense. And you, I know when I first read this, I could not understand why they died. I was like, I've lied. I think everyone's lied. And God didn't punish us that way. But the thing about this specific situation is...
This whole message of dishonesty and greed, especially in the church, is a really scary and damaging thing. And Ananias and Sapphira, they weren't punished. Their sin wasn't the fact that they withheld the money. It's that they lied to God and to his people saying that they gave all of the money. And when you lie to God and when you lie to his people and you're lying about your relationship with Jesus...
You are doing something more than just lying. All lying is bad. But when you lie about Jesus or you lie about how generous you are or you lie about the integrity just to appear a certain way, you're deceiving the people of the church. And there's more weight to that than just lying to somebody because Jesus is involved at that point. And you're destroying the testimony of Jesus when you lie on his name in any way.
And so... Yeah, no, I agree. I think when you have the ambition to look good and to lie rather than having a pure heart, the enemy has you in a chokehold. I mean, that's just it. It's that simple. And I think that's exactly what happened. Some people read this story and they'll accuse God of being way too harsh on Ananias and Sapphira. And they'll be like, but God...
The wrath was for the Old Testament. God is gracious and he's merciful and that's true He is but I'm afraid that when we put too much emphasis on grace and mercy We overlook the equally important part that God is holy He is holy and he hates sin. He hates sin today He hated it then and he's always gonna hate it because he doesn't change and so
That's what we're going to be talking about today, fake faith. So Hebrews 11.1, I think it's good to know what faith even is in biblical terms. Hebrews 11.1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And here's the thing about faith, having faith in Jesus Christ.
radically saved our lives, radically transformed our lives. And I imagine that if we had fake faith, a faith that is only for appearance and how it looks and how other people perceive us, and do we look good to the church, and can we tell our mentors and our accountability problems that we're absolutely perfect, that brings no transformation. It cannot save you. You have to have real faith. And how do you do that?
You just draw near to God. I mean, we're close to God because we choose to be every single day. And it changed us. You don't understand. We're two girls who come from the world, who were literally living in sin. We didn't understand. We didn't know. And we radically changed because we chose to give ourselves to Jesus. We drew near to him. We had the humility to be like,
I can't do this on my own. Because truly, we couldn't. We didn't understand. We didn't know. And honestly, we didn't have any mentors. We didn't have anyone in the church. We had to figure this thing out, just her and I. It was literally just her and I trying to figure it out. But we had Jesus. And he changed our hearts. We just had Jesus. And I just...
I give so many people grace because I was one of those people who just, I grew up in a family who, I was just living of the world. I was in relationships. In my relationship, I thought, how could I stay pure? That's where I found my love. And, you know, it's just, yeah.
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super saved. And like she said, we came from the world. And I think that it's been a really interesting journey for Ari and I because we have come into our relationship with Jesus truly
We're each other's community. We have more a community now, thank God. But like for a while, we were all each other had in the Bible. We let Jesus do a transformative work in our hearts because it's only the spirit of God that could bring a transformation in you that is actually sustainable where you don't go back. And I think the reason that we wanted to even talk about this today is because we came into this world and Ari and I show up
for better or for worse, authentically ourselves. We don't know how to like, we have to be honest because it will crush us. If we tried coming up here being like, yeah, we're perfect and we have always been good Christians. No, we haven't. No, we haven't. And we're able to like shamelessly be honest about where we're at because we didn't grow up in a culture that forces these things on us.
And I think so many people, when you grow up in church, or even when you're heavily involved in the church, which is the most beautiful thing that we are heavily involved in church and we love it so much, and community is the most important thing, but the issue is when you let your transformation come because the people around you are putting pressure on you. And so we come into this situation where Ari and I have...
no mentors like she said we don't have that much community but God is changing us from the inside out and we're laying sin down left and right and never picking it back up again and then we're watching our friends who have been in this their whole lives who have 10 accountability partners who are suffering severely and they're struggling and they don't tell anybody about it and the reason that they're struggling is because they can't because they have to look perfect
And it's so damaging for these people. And so we just want to encourage everybody here to be honest about where you're at. And this whole culture of like having to be perfect, it's not realistic. None of us are. Every single person in this room is struggling with something. And honestly, there's nothing more pleasing to God than being like,
laying it off, being raw. When you are raw and real and you bring it to his feet and you're like, God, I don't know how to do this. And I was like that when I had to... I just want to take it back real quick because...
So I think I was still in John. I just started reading the Bible. She was teaching me. Two months later, we start this podcast. We didn't even know what a podcast was, but it just happened really fast. And, you know, I'm trying to, you know, I had this longing to be so close to God because he saved my life. I almost didn't make it, guys. And he saved my life. I mean, you guys know, some of you guys know my story. I was...
just dead and he took me out of the pit and it was almost like I had a second chance again and then I'm able to and then I'm helping you guys and I'm sitting here and I'm getting the we're getting the questions hey can you guys speak about sin and like that feeling in my heart I was just like I could it was like staring at me in the face and I just knew and that's what happens like that godly sorrow when you get close to Jesus and you just you
you just can't live wrong and then I'll never forget it. It was like we went to, we met some Christian friends and we went to dinner with them and they didn't know what was going on in our hearts because we knew we were feeling some type of way and they just looked at us and they said, you know, you can't really call yourself a Christian and have one foot in and one foot out and I look at Angela and
And my whole body went numb. This was right when we started the podcast. We get in the car and I just break down. And I didn't know whether I wanted to hate that girl or say thank you to that girl. Because, you know, it's like it's a tough thing to face. Yeah. You know, and then that's when and then I'm sitting there and I'm thinking and I wake up.
And I said to myself, God doesn't need me. He gave me a second chance. He doesn't need me, you know? And he's saved my life, and I have one foot in and one foot out. And I'm sitting there, and I'm so close to God, and I'm saturated in prayer every day, and I'm in my Bible, yet I'm still feeling such a lack of peace. I have an immense amount of anxiety every day. I still didn't feel good inside.
Why? Because of the sin, guys. Because of the sin. And that was the day I just, I had that godly sorrow and the fear of the Lord hit me. Amen. And
If you don't have a healthy fear of God, you cannot be in close relationship with him. We cannot walk around not fearing him. And the fear of the Lord is being terrified to be away from him. When he found me where I was at and he saved me, I was terrified of being away from him.
And so being afraid, having the fear of the Lord is not running from him. It's running to him. Yeah. Okay. And that's the day that, that he, after that, I swear you're talking to two girls that had trailer miles. We come from the East coast. Every other word out of my family's mouth is, is a swear word. Yeah. So that's how we grew up. And you know, we grew up in sin and it was just one day something broke.
We both got on our knees. We said, God, we need you. We need to change our ways. And he did, you guys. And it changed my life. And I could be in the darkest storm, and I still have that peace that surpasses all understanding. Why? Because I'm walking in the will of God. I walk in holiness now. And there's so many young people that are sitting here that just don't know how to. They're like, oh, well, you know.
I don't know if I could. Yes, you can. Draw near to him. He will change the desires of your heart. And it's going to change your life. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Amen. Fear the Lord is everything. You can't do this walk without fearing God. And it wasn't until God gave us something that
I almost, because I grew up Catholic, so I loved Jesus my whole life, and it literally didn't change the way that I lived my life at all. There was nothing about me that reflected my love for Jesus, because I was lacking one very important thing, and it was the fear of God. And it wasn't until he put me in a position, he gave me something that I love more than anything in the world, and that's Girls Gone Bible. He gave me this, he put me in this position, and we had to go face-to-face, me and God, and he literally said to me, he said,
either you rise to the occasion or this isn't yours anymore. And it was the first moment where I no longer, I had to lay down the... Sometimes, like, when you're walking in this inauthenticity in your relationship with Jesus, you can almost lie to yourself. And I'm sitting here being like, I love Jesus so much and I'm such a good person.
So I can do this, this, and this. And you like let yourself get away with all these things because you think that he's so gracious. I'm sorry, but God hates sin. And it is the way that it is here now in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. He's the same God. And so I was faced with myself to be like, do I actually love Jesus? It says in scripture that...
God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So you are lying to yourself if you say you have fellowship with God and you go on continuing living in spiritual darkness. And so I'm sitting here living in spiritual darkness until he... And God's grace most of the time is so confrontational and sometimes...
it hurts when he makes us face things and sometimes he has to bring us to a place of humility in a way that we don't want to get there but sometimes it's the only way and I had to face myself and I had to face everything in my life and he literally gave me an ultimatum almost he said I'm giving you one chance either you be the person that I'm calling you to be or don't but why would you not and this is our whole issue that we want to talk about today
is that so many of us are doing things for the perception of others. We're spending all our time looking like we have a great relationship with God, posting Bible verses on the internet, like posting our quiet time with Jesus instead of actually cultivating a relationship with him. He loves us so much. We're sitting here pretending to have a relationship with the one who died for us. He died so we could have a relationship with him, and we're lying about it instead of
actually having one. It is so backwards and it hurts me to think about all the people who are suffering because they're people pleasing and they're thinking about others and they're thinking about what other people think instead of understanding that we live for the applause of
one and our reward is not here but in heaven I only care about what God thinks actually I don't care at all what anybody thinks about my relationship with Jesus as long as it's pure as long as we're in right standing that's all that matters to me and so there's we can talk about sanctification for a second sanctification means to be set apart or to be made holy
there's positional sanctification and then there's lifelong sanctification upon being saved you are positionally sanctified you are immediately set apart you are God's child you are a son or daughter of Jesus Christ and then the really fun part is the lifelong sanctification where God throughout our whole lives is going to try and make us holy
and he's going to prune us and he's going to sanctify us. And it says in John 15 that he cuts off the branches that don't produce fruit. And the ones that do produce fruit, he prunes them to make sure that they bear more fruit. And if we remain in him, he will remain in us and we will bear fruit only if we are remaining in him. And so our sanctification and pruning process has been so painful. It has. I don't think it's going to be easy.
It has been the craziest year of our lives to have lived a certain way our whole life in the world and then to be like, there's so much I have to change. And it's so funny because you reach a level of holiness and you think you're good and you think you got it all. And then God's like, oh, I'm going to show you all this that you didn't even know was in there. It's true. It's so fun. I love you. It's so fun. Yeah. Anything?
No, I just want to say it one more time because I want to get it through to you. We literally feel like we crack the code. Finding Jesus is one thing, but actually walking in the will of him is another thing. Amen. And I just... I need you guys to hear us when we say this. I just...
I didn't understand why I lived my whole life with no peace. You know how I always talk about that feeling in your stomach where it's so unsettled, where you don't feel good, you're with your friends, but you're still riddled with anxiety? The minute we laid it all down, you guys, you think it's going to be so hard. It's really not. It's not. You're going to look back at your old self and you're going to be like,
how was I living that way? You know, and I just, I want us all to get to this place of purity, of pleasing God even when it's hard. Is it hard to always be obedient? No, it's not. Let's be real. It's hard some days.
But it's worth it. That's when you're in the light. You're in the light. You guys know about the light, the bread of life. That's it. When you're walking in holiness. And I just want us all to get there. I want to talk about it every single time we do a podcast because we cracked the code. The minute we laid it down, you guys, that's when our lives changed. That's when we were in the light. Amen. Amen. Ari and I have like...
I've learned, we've been learning so much recently. God is teaching us so much just about speaking in, out of, at places and being with people in the room, and it's so different than having a podcast, and it's so fun, and it's, it's, it's, we're honored to be able to do it, but he's been teaching me so much recently by taking me to these small churches. I was in Florida last weekend, and
we basically went and we spoke at all these little churches that's like minimum 20 people to 50 people sometimes like it's so intimate and what God really taught me was that it's so easy to hide behind production it's so easy to hide behind cameras and lights and music and good lighting and all of these things like it really is so easy it's so easy to evoke an emotion instead of
actually cultivating an environment where the Holy Spirit can come dwell and bring transformation. And it was such a grounding experience and so humbling and the best way of being like, I have like all that matters, you guys, is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, I feel like people don't even talk about the Holy Spirit enough. Why do we ignore him? Jesus literally said, it's actually to your benefit if I go because I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. I'm going to give you the helper who's going to talk to you. He's the spirit of counsel and wisdom. He's going to talk to you, convict you,
comfort you. The Holy Spirit is my world. He's my best friend. I don't do things because the people around me tell me I should. I do it because of the Spirit of God that lives within me, that wants this for me, that cares. And I, it says that the pure in heart will see God. I am so desperate to see God. I need Him.
We have the beautiful thing about not coming from this and then coming and talking on a stage is we know that if we came up here and God wasn't with us, it's all done in vain. There is no transformation and there is no point in any of it. We are so dependent on God's spirit and I pray that we never know enough.
that we think that we don't need him anymore. We started the podcast because we wanted people to have an accurate view of who God is. Like we wanted them to know that God is our, not only our father, but Jesus is our savior and the Holy Spirit is our friend. And we wanted them to know about...
Holy Spirit empowerment and the healing, the miraculous healing of Jesus, the way that He heals today just like He did in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in Bible times. That healing is available to every person in this room. And I think about how truly from the bottom of my heart,
I know that God didn't create all of this, create Girls Gone Bible because Ari and I are special. And I'm not saying that to be humble. It is the God honest truth because we're not. We weren't equipped. We weren't qualified. We weren't ready. But I think God knew that we would be honest.
And why are we able to be honest? Because we don't have outside voices telling us that we have to be perfect because we're not and we never will be and our past isn't. But you know why we show up honest and we're not ashamed to talk about where we've been, where we're at and everything in between? Because we believe that God is a redeemer.
And so if you're walking around with all of the shame and all of this guilt and your secret sin and you can't tell anyone and you have 10 mentors but not a single one of them know what's even going on in your life,
you have to ask yourself, do I believe that God is who he says he is? Do I believe he's a redeemer? Because either he is or he isn't. Either you're made new in Christ or you're not. Either his grace is sufficient or it's not. You have to ask yourself because the truth is it is, he is, and you are made new and your past is not what defines you and you can move on and you can be honest. And let me tell you, when you go and be honest and bring people your sin that you think is so bad, they're literally gonna go,
I went through the same thing. Thank God I'm not the only one. Yeah. Literally. Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things is we live in shame. I know I did. I looked at Angela when we first started. I said, I can't do this. I have too much of a past. Like I was really living of the world. I can't do this. So as we talk about purity tonight and we talk to you about all this, I don't want you guys to feel like, oh man,
No, no, this is just, we're just telling you guys that we were there too. And this is how it changed us. And I want you guys to live in the light and feel good and not live in anxiety and fear and feeling shame and guilt all day. That's not how God wants us to live. He loves us so much, you know? And so, yeah. It's a please, if anything, I hope that this message is encouraging to know
That you have freedom in Jesus. You are not, it's, if you're living in this world of shame and secrecy because you think that you can't be open about where you're at or what's going on, Jesus came to set you free. The opposite of what church and church community should be doing is making you feel in bondage to shame. Like, it should be the opposite.
Shame is bye-bye on the cross with Jesus. It is not yours to carry. Let that break off of you right now because we're not carrying that anymore. We have to enter a season of honesty, of being real with ourselves, being real with God. Because you will never have the transformation that you desire, that God desires for you if you're letting shame hold you back. Shame is the most poisonous, toxic thing ever.
You will never become who God wants you to be if you're in shame. Shame literally doesn't let you propel. It doesn't let you move forward. You're stuck where you are because you're not good enough. I don't feel good enough. My past is too bad. No, it's not. No, it's not. My life changed when I stopped hiding. Honestly, he was right there like this.
And I told him everything all day. And he was right here like this. And he's right there like this for you guys too. You have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. You are not your past. No, you're not. That's my girl.
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Thank you, BetterHelp, for sponsoring this video. I always think about Matthew 7, 21. It says, I think about that all the time because...
At one point, I grew up Catholic, and so if you know anything about Catholicism, you know Jesus, you love Jesus, but you don't really read the Bible. I don't know why, so I didn't start reading the Bible until I was 25. And my
My entire world I wish that people could have been there when I opened a Bible for the first time literally my entire world opened up And I fell in love with the scriptures that day, and I'm in love with them today. I'm in awe of the scriptures It's my life if we could leave with that you with anything It's read the Bible every single day of your life. It is the bread and water that we live on it is the only thing it is the only thing that matters and
And I just think about, I loved Jesus my whole life and I would have gotten to heaven and I literally would have been like, but Lord, Lord, I prophesied in your name. I casted out demons in your name. I, you know, told everyone how much I love you in your name, even though I didn't even know the simple gospel. I told everyone how much I loved you. And he's literally, he would have said to me, depart from me. I never knew you. I was somebody that Jesus would have said, depart from me. I never knew you. And I thought I knew him. So I just want you guys to
To know Jesus. I know that sounds simple, but know him. He's worthy to be known. He wants to know you.
If you're ever lacking purpose, just know that you have one purpose. It is to know Jesus and to make him known. He created you to have a relationship with him. And when you don't have that intimate relationship, all the people in the world, our hearts are burdened for them. The ones who are depressed and unwell and empty and lost because they have a God-sized hole in their heart that will never be filled by anything except our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because he's the one who created them to be in relationship with him. Yeah.
And I, if you guys don't know anything about my story, I came from a really, really dark, dark, Jesus met me at a dark spot. I started suffering severely with my mental health when I got into my 20s. I was experiencing severe panic disorder, anxiety, depression.
really bad OCD that I was later diagnosed with, intrusive thoughts. The scariest place that I could have been was in my own head. It was so scary and I felt in danger being in my own mind. I had no control. I had completely lost control over my mind. And then to make matters worse, the only thing that made me feel better was alcohol. So I then got physically and emotionally dependent on alcohol.
I was only 23 years old, and my life was over. If Jesus hadn't come through, my life was over. I would not have made it. And so the reason why I experienced my relationship with Jesus so intimately is because I feel the weight of what he did in my life. My intensity of the way that I love him matches the severity of what he saved me from. And if it weren't for Jesus, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
and the greatest gift that he has ever given me is a haunting feeling in my chest every day of my life of what he did, of what he did for me 2,000 years ago on a cross, the cross that killed my savior that came as a servant.
And a king who came down as a baby in the dirt died on the cross for my sins so I could later be freed and delivered from darkness that I put myself in. I didn't deserve to be saved the way that I was. And I wake up every single morning with a fire in my chest because of what he did. The weight, the gravity of the gospel and the weight of the cross sits on my chest.
every day of my life, and I pray that he never gives me relief because I never want to forget what he did in my life. And this is something...
that every single one of you can experience if you have been in a prolonged season of numbness or dryness it is time to take a stand against it today and say I am not settling for this this is not what he died for I deserve more than this he wants all of you he wants all of you he wants your heart but like Ari said it says in scripture draw near to me and I will draw near to you we take initiative he's standing there waiting for your heart but you have to give it to him
And whatever is standing in the way of you and Jesus, in the way of your relationship with Jesus, you tear it down. You get rid of it. Whatever it is, I don't care what it is. And I want to speak to anyone who's experienced church hurt. Today is the day you drop it right now and you don't take it with you. You can no longer use it as an excuse. I'm not diminishing your pain or what happened to you, but enough is enough. Whoever hurt you is still hurting you today if you're letting them affect your relationship with Jesus. Amen.
Let it all go, whatever's standing in between you and him. I love you so much. That was good. I love you guys so much. Yeah. No, I'm just so glad you said that about the Bible. I mean, I looked at her when I first met Angela, and I said, do you think I should get on medication? My mental health is so bad. My thoughts are so overpowering. I literally...
death would typically scare someone and it felt like a solution for me. I'm not kidding you. I was so mentally tormented, I couldn't bear another day. And I looked at her
And I said, because we had watched The Chosen, and I saw Mary Magdalene, and it was like watching myself through a screen. I'm watching this woman hold her head on the ground. She's getting tortured by demons, and I truly felt like that was me. And then I see Jesus save her and cast out seven demons, and I said to myself...
If he could do this with her, why can't he do this with me? I made my mental health, my mental illness, the thoughts, the depression, I made it my identity. I thought, I'm only going to get worse. This is never going to get better. And as I'm watching this woman and how he saved her through the screen, I'm thinking, I think I might have a chance, you know?
We started reading the Bible and she sat there with me every single day and we started with John and let me tell you it renewed my mind. It healed me you guys.
I have such a passion for mental health. I know what it's like to feel like you're not going to make it through. I know what depression feels like. I know what anxiety feels like. I know what heartbreak feels like all too well, where someone just takes your heart and rips it out of your chest, and you are just lost. You have no identity. You think it's only going to get worse. You guys...
It's coming from a girl who literally had the worst depression and mental health you could ever see. I wish you guys could have seen me a year and a half ago. You wouldn't have recognized me. He changed my life. He saved me. He healed me. He redeemed me without any medication.
And I am no different from any one of you guys. And he will do the same. All you have to do is have a humility to open up your heart to him, to say, Jesus, I need you. Help me. And I promise you, you will be different. He will change your life. Change your life. Change your life. And it's got to be authentic, you guys.
It's got to be authentic. Come to Him real. Come to Him real. God doesn't need some perfect version of you. I wish you guys could hear our prayers. We pray together all the time. It's a mess. Like we literally, I talk to him like he's like actually my friend. And you know if you're struggling with numbness or dryness or you're not connecting to God or you're not giving Him your time the way that you should, ask Him. Pray that He will help you love Him the way that He deserves.
When there are moments where I am not loving God properly, I just ask Him. I say, "God, I need help. I'm not loving you the way that you deserve. Help me. Show me. Open my heart. Soften my heart." He literally can answer all of these questions, everything that is standing between you guys that's getting in the way of your relationship. Bring it to Him. Be honest to Him. He loves it, and He's going to answer those prayers, and He's going to honor your honesty and your authenticity. He loves you guys so much.
don't settle for a surface relationship with God or, God forbid, just having the appearance of having a relationship with God. We can't do that anymore. We're in the end times, you guys. Not to get super crazy, but...
It's getting serious. It's really intense out there. And not only does God need you, he needs you to go get everybody else. It's time to get up in your faith, to make your faith powerful, receive Holy Spirit boldness, power, power from the Holy Spirit to not only have a full relationship with God, but then to go teach other people, go make disciples, right?
It's time. And it doesn't need to be on a podcast. We say this all the time. Ministry is in beauty. Ministry is in your workplace. Ministry is anywhere you are. Everywhere. Ministry is where your feet are. Ministry is where your family is. Ministry is literally the random person that is on the side of the road that you can talk to and just ask them questions and talk to them about Jesus. That's another thing I want to talk about with
with the while around fake faith.
You know, we can talk the talk, but we need to walk the walk. And it really, we have, as Christians, a responsibility to care for others. When we see someone in need, it is our responsibility to help them. We are not just to look at someone and say, oh, I'll be praying for you. No, we need to be helping people. There are people suffering, and it starts with you. You see someone suffering, you help them. You be a hand for them. There's a scripture that says,
In James 2, verse 14, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well-fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, it is dead.
Okay, I'm serious guys. We have to be helping others. We're suffering. We need to be there for others. And another thing, it's so funny. I had a friend the other day who's trying to get into faith, but you know what she said to me? She said, I'm scared. I look at the comments sometimes that people leave under your photos and
I don't want to be shamed like that. I don't want to be judged like that. The gossip and shame and just saying mean things, that is not a person of God. We are not to judge others. None of us are perfect in this room. We all have a past, and don't ever forget that. So anytime, I know sometimes we can be talking with friends and whatever, but we need to check ourselves really quick because that's a really big sin.
And it doesn't feel good. And God doesn't like that. He doesn't like gossip. He doesn't like deceit. And he doesn't like judgment. We are, as Christians, to accept people, to look at them in a place of love and light and say, man, I was once there. Man, I wonder what they went through. Amen.
We don't know what people's past are. Some people have been sexually abused. Some people just didn't grow up in a family where they know better. So we have to give people grace and compassion. Amen. It says in scripture... What does it say? We do this all the time. It says something along the lines of...
Jesus said, "Whatever you do for the least of these is what you do for me." Everyone's like, "Oh yeah, thank you guys." And so it's so true. It's about the things that you do in private. It's about the moments. You know what the most miraculous things I've ever seen have been in a room with me and probably one or two other people? The biggest moves of God I've ever seen that weren't televised, that weren't on YouTube, that weren't made into a 30 second reel on Instagram. Those are the most powerful things I've ever seen God do.
It's all about the moments in obscurity. This is amazing. This is so beautiful. We're so grateful to God. But what you do in private, what you do for the least of us, the people who can do nothing for you, that's what God looks down at and is like, good job, my good and faithful servant. You are making me proud. And so, you know. So, yeah. We don't know how to end anything. Are we doing a Q&A? You guys should have seen. Hang on.
Are we going to do a Q&A? How are we on time? It's all up to you. I think we have a few minutes left, so if you want to do a few questions, maybe three questions. If you guys want to do questions, if you want to go home, it's midnight. We won't be offended. We can do a few. We can do a few. All righty. I'm going to get some of the ladies first, first, first. All right. We'll come right here. What's your name?
Hi, I'm Danielle. Thank you so much for being here, ladies. I would love to hear something that has made you smile, that Jesus has done for you lately that's made you smile or something you're looking forward to. That's beautiful. Thank you. Honestly, you know what makes me smile? You guys. I am not kidding. I look around.
And it doesn't feel real. I'm just like, how did we create the most loyal? You guys have given us so much grace. The love you give us. Why do you think we're able to bleed out and feel so safe when we speak on our past? Because you guys accept us exactly for who we are. I don't think you guys understand. You think we're helping you. You help us.
Anytime Angela and I have a tough day, we think about you guys. We're like, well, if all else fails, we have them. Literally. No, literally. You guys are the joy of our lives. Really. I mean, we have the most loyal family. You guys are literally, we call you our family. You are. You are. And we just...
When I think about what makes me smile, honestly, it's you guys. I swear. All right, we have one more back here. Hi, guys. My name is Natalie. So I do have a question for you guys. How do you deal with the passive or aggressive resistance with having a platform and talking about Jesus, having a past, not being the ideal image of God, right? Because we all have this idea of what it should look like, but...
That's not the accuracy. So how do you guys handle that criticism and that resistance? Great question. Thank you for your question. And Danielle, you're so cute. Thank you so much. Yeah, you are. I love your earrings. I think when we first started...
I used to let it get to me. Ari's really good about, she just doesn't care at all. And she's really good about it. I was a little bit more like, I would let people speak into my faith and my relationship with Jesus. And I did, there were moments where I was so confused because it's something so intimate and vulnerable, your relationship with God. And that having people speak into it was so hard at first.
But then over time, I just leaned into God more. And it was actually one of the greatest learning lessons with God of teaching me and humbling me to the point where I cannot live for the approval of other people because it'll kill me. It'll kill me. I will never do anything important for God if I'm worried about what people are going to say because there are literally bots everywhere.
that aren't real people that will say something you know what i mean like you can't you can't it's between me and jesus if i know that we're good if i know my heart is pure and i'm in right standing with him and my fruit is good and and i'm treating people the way that i should
That's all that matters to me. And so it's so easy to overcome that resistance. And it also makes it a lot easier when you understand when you're doing anything for Jesus, understand there will be opposition, whether it's physical, spiritual, no matter what it is, it's going to manifest in some way. And so we know that. So when we receive opposition, we know we're doing something right. Amen. Come on, let's put our hands together for that answer. Thank you.
Last question of the night. It's from a man that's in the room. So here you go. Hey, Hari. My name is Carlos. First of all, I just want to say thank you for what you do. And to be honest, everything that you said about having like intrusive thoughts and things just in your mind, I went through that. I almost was going to kill myself the day I gave my life to Jesus. But he broke that off and I came to him. He gave me a fluttering heart. And, you know, I...
I couldn't be more happier with him. Everything you said was true, both of you. You have like a pastor type of like care for you, bro. The way you talk, and you too, you have this preacher talk to you. I want to ask you, where did the name Girls Gone Bible come from? And I wanted to ask you, what is the biggest struggle that you had before Jesus and after Jesus? Yeah.
First of all, I am so proud of you. I am so proud. Can we just all give a round of applause for him? I am so proud of you. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I know that's not, I'm so proud of you. How Girls Gone Bible got the name. We were in our first session. I could barely even form sentences. I was so nervous. I didn't even know. Can you imagine? And
And how did, oh, our producer, right? We said Girls Gone, we were going to do Girls Gone God. Yeah.
And our producer looked at us and he said, "Oh no, no, no, it's gonna be Girls Gone Bible." We were like, "That is genius!" That is genius! Thank you, Morgan. And then something that was my biggest struggle was my unworthiness. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel smart. I didn't feel equipped.
I never felt good enough growing up. I didn't have Jesus. I didn't know Jesus. I grew up in a really difficult household where I didn't have peace. When you don't have peace and you don't have hope, you don't feel good. And I carry that into my adulthood. And my whole life, I'm putting my identity into men. I'm putting my identity into my career. I thought, hey, maybe I'll find love in a man. Maybe I'll find, you know, I'll have...
that safety in my career and a man, and it only left me feeling empty. And so when I found Jesus, that peace and love and hope and rest that I had been searching for my whole life was right there all along. Amen. Amen. Yeah. My biggest struggle before Jesus was I have...
always struggled now looking back with OCD and a very addictive personality and obsessive compulsive thoughts and activities and habits and that has resulted in you know severe anxiety, alcohol abuse, disordered eating, I mean you name it from this one thing has created so many obstacles in my life and so that these were the things that
were the things that plagued me every single day of my life before Jesus and now after Jesus I keep these things under my feet like this because of the blood of Jesus and
Luckily, I have God to help me get through it every single day, but there's still things that I struggle with. If I take one step away from Jesus, if I take one day out of the Bible, I am delivered from these things, but it's up to me to stay delivered. And so every single day I fight. I fight against sin.
my pre genetic predisposition in my mind to have these issues. And so I struggled with them before and I fight every day with Jesus fights for me with a little bit of my help every day to keep these things out of my life and out of my mind. Thank you ladies so much. Can we put our hands together for Ange and Ari?
I just think it's fitting before we close, if we just take a moment to pray and just praying for the room and then praying for you all. Thank you all for just sharing tonight. I believe that every single one of us were leaving better than the way that we came in and your testimonies and the way that you just broke down God's word was just truly incredible.
Come on, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for tonight. I thank you for every single person that is in this room, Lord. I pray, God, that we will continue to seek you, God, that we will live out true faith, God. Lord, I pray that the things that we do, Lord, will be only for you, Lord, that we would do it for the audience of one God. I pray for every single person, Lord, whatever area that they're in, Lord, that they realize that's their ministry, God.
Lord, we thank you for Ange and Ari, God. We pray a hedge of protection over them, God. We pray, Lord, that as you would continue to enlarge their territory, Lord, and just allowing them to share their stories, Lord, their testimony, Lord, that you would just continue using them, Lord, in a special way, Lord, that will bring you glory, God. So we just thank you for them, God. We pray, Lord, that you would just continue being with them, Lord. And so we just give you this night, God. We seal it in your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, ladies.
