Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Living Her Truth with Madison Prewett Troutt

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Living Her Truth with Madison Prewett Troutt · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

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Speaker 1: This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
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Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
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Speaker 2: Welcome the Almost Famous podcast.
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Speaker 3: We are here today with author Madison Pruitt Trout to
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Speaker 3: talk about Dare to Be True.
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Speaker 2: Mattie, Can we call you Maddie?
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Speaker 4: Absolutely?
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Speaker 2: Do you go by Madison or Maddie now?
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Speaker 5: Well, you know, like professionally, it's like Madison, you know,
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Speaker 5: the name I was born with. But then I feel
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Speaker 5: like all my friends and everyone just calls you Maddie.
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Speaker 5: And because my social media is Maddie, I feel like
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Speaker 5: it's just it's Maddie.
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Speaker 3: Now, Okay, We're gonna call you Maddie because I feel
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Speaker 3: like Madison just wouldn't come off.
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Speaker 2: I would just call you Maddie. I think that's how
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Speaker 2: I refer to you in my life. Maddie. This is what?
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Speaker 2: Is this your third book?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 4: This is book number three? Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Crazy, Like when it can have been that long ago,
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Speaker 3: it feels like you're pumping out a book a year.
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Speaker 2: Is this the plan?
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Speaker 4: This was not the plan.
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Speaker 5: Honestly, I have had this message on my heart for
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Speaker 5: a long time and kind of tried to run from
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Speaker 5: it for a while and woke up in the middle
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Speaker 5: of the night and felt like the Lord was like,
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Speaker 5: you need to write a book on truth, and I'm like,
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Speaker 5: I don't know how to do that, and that feels scary,
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Speaker 5: and I don't even know where to start. And it
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Speaker 5: was a really hard Out of all three books that
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Speaker 5: I've written, this was by far the hardest, and I
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Speaker 5: tried to.
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Speaker 4: Quit multiple times.
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Speaker 5: But I really do believe that this message can truly
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Speaker 5: change people's lives, and it's changed my life.
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Speaker 4: So I'm really excited.
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Speaker 5: This is probably the most like passionate and excited I've
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Speaker 5: been about a project in a book that I've that
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Speaker 5: I've done.
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Speaker 6: Your last book, the demographic was kind of like for
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Speaker 6: the single girl, you said, we really could apply to anyone,
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Speaker 6: but you know, like really about those looking for love?
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Speaker 2: Who should pick up this book?
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Speaker 4: Honestly everybody.
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Speaker 5: I do feel like this is a message no matter
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Speaker 5: where you're at on your faith journey and whether you're
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Speaker 5: asking the question like what is truth and what is
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Speaker 5: true about me?
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Speaker 4: And what is true about God?
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Speaker 5: And what's true about eternity and life and all those things,
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Speaker 5: or whether you're just finding yourself in a place of
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Speaker 5: believing lies in your own mind about yourself. You don't
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Speaker 5: know what to believe about why you're here and what
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Speaker 5: you were put on this earth to do, or whether
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Speaker 5: you're feeling hopeless with all of the opinions and media
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Speaker 5: outlet news things that are being spewed your way, and
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Speaker 5: you're just confused by all the messages out there, and
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Speaker 5: you're just like, I don't know what to believe.
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Speaker 4: I don't know what's real with.
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Speaker 5: All the ai, with all of the news outlets, like
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Speaker 5: I don't know what to believe. It can just feel
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Speaker 5: super overwhelming, and we can feel really really bound in
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Speaker 5: our minds, not only by what's happening around us, but
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Speaker 5: also what's happening in our own hearts and minds.
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Speaker 4: And so I do I think this book is really.
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Speaker 5: For everybody, no matter your age, no matter where you're
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Speaker 5: at with your faith. I think this is a message
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Speaker 5: you never really graduate from. I honestly wrote it from
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Speaker 5: a super vulnerable place, and I even have to go
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Speaker 5: back to it and remind myself of the truth when
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Speaker 5: I wake up on certain days and start believing lies.
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Speaker 5: And so it's a message that even honestly like I
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Speaker 5: have to live out every day.
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Speaker 3: So we do get to talk about this amazing book,
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Speaker 3: but we also are going to bring up some recent
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Speaker 3: headlines as we google the name Madison Pruitt Trout that
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Speaker 3: have come up, and I think it's only appropriate for
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Speaker 3: the people that we'll be picking up this book. And
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Speaker 3: I do agree that those who are wanting to live
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Speaker 3: in truth and to learn from you probably could get
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Speaker 3: the opportunity to have an explanation and a little more
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Speaker 3: insight into it. It's really what I want to do
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Speaker 3: for an hour. I just want to talk to you
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Speaker 3: about your life. You're doing a lot of good things,
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Speaker 3: a lot of really cool things, and recently you've made
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Speaker 3: headlines and goodness, gracious, kid, I've learned a lot.
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Speaker 6: About you, Maddie. Before he goes there, when you hear
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Speaker 6: him introduce this, like does your heart drop? Do you
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Speaker 6: feel awkward and you're like, oh, here we go? Or
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Speaker 6: are you like I put it out there, I am
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Speaker 6: ready to talk.
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Speaker 4: I think it's one of those things that it's so funny.
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Speaker 4: I forget.
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Speaker 5: And I don't know if this happens to you guys,
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Speaker 5: but I like genuinely forget, Like I just share what
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Speaker 5: I'm going through, what's on my heart, and talk in
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Speaker 5: such a way that it just feels like it's such
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Speaker 5: a safe space, you know, and then things just get
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Speaker 5: taken out of context or someone takes something and runs
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Speaker 5: with it, and then next thing I know, I'm on
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Speaker 5: People Magazine, E News and US Weekly and I'm just like, oh, well,
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Speaker 5: what happened?
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Speaker 2: What I say?
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Speaker 6: No, I wish I could read that free. I wish
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Speaker 6: I could feel that free where here? Like could that
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Speaker 6: be interpreted like that? Should we cut that little part out?
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Speaker 4: Well? I truly I don't know.
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Speaker 5: I think too because my audience is so like Faith World,
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Speaker 5: and I do so much ministry and that really is
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Speaker 5: so much of like.
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Speaker 4: My life now.
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Speaker 5: I kind of like forget about like Bachelor World a
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Speaker 5: little bit. And it's funny how sometimes I get just
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Speaker 5: thrown right back in with just you know, something something random.
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Speaker 4: So it is it.
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Speaker 5: Definitely triggers, Like I think there's moments where I get
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Speaker 5: like retriggered, and you know, I'm like, wow, it's really
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Speaker 5: really hard being misunderstood like that is for sure the
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Speaker 5: feeling and really really sad by when people you know
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Speaker 5: don't understand I guess your heart or like if if
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Speaker 5: I say something in a way that was just not
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Speaker 5: the way in which I meant it, and then I
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Speaker 5: feel really bad and I'm like, wait, I want to
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Speaker 5: explain pain, but then I don't want to seem like
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Speaker 5: I'm like, so it's it triggers a lot of feelings,
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Speaker 5: for sure.
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Speaker 3: There's there's a deep dive we can go into into
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Speaker 3: those moments of who do you lean on and how
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Speaker 3: do you process it? And when do you choose to
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Speaker 3: speak out up or when do you just choose to
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Speaker 3: let the noise die down. I think that's a very
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Speaker 3: interesting thing for kind of us who live in that
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Speaker 3: world to understand. I don't know if the listeners always
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Speaker 3: love to hear, you know, a bunch of people with
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Speaker 3: a following and a platform talk about, you know, the
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Speaker 3: issues with saying something publicly, because I think we do
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Speaker 3: have a responsibility here and I want you to have
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Speaker 3: the opportunity to explain yourself or to elaborate on some
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Speaker 3: of these The big headline here recently is that you
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Speaker 3: and Grant, and I really wanted to hear from Grant
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Speaker 3: on this too. Talked about your intentions for kind of
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Speaker 3: punishment or how you're going to guide your daughter, who's
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Speaker 3: beautiful and about the same age as Whinny.
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Speaker 2: By the way.
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Speaker 3: In life and it was talked about spanking. Spanking was
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Speaker 3: a big thing here. I would love to understand the
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Speaker 3: context for this, how you handled the pushback and criticism.
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Speaker 3: I also know you have such a huge heart for
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Speaker 3: evangelism and for bringing people to a faith in Jesus,
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Speaker 3: and so I imagine and I'm not going to make assumptions here.
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Speaker 3: You can tell me if I'm wrong, But I just
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Speaker 3: know you well enough to know your heart that you
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Speaker 3: want people from the outside who maybe don't have a
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Speaker 3: similar faith system to you or a faith tradition to you,
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Speaker 3: to hear things from you and be guided into your
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Speaker 3: world and maybe not be pushed away from it. And
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Speaker 3: so I'm sure these are tough moments for you, not
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Speaker 3: only because of your heart but professionally. So we got
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Speaker 3: a moment here. I love to hear anything you want
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Speaker 3: to share.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think before every podcast that I record,
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Speaker 5: like Grant and I just take a moment and we
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Speaker 5: just hit our knees and we pray, and we're like,
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Speaker 5: we don't want to do any of this to bring
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Speaker 5: people to us. We want to do everything that we
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Speaker 5: do and everything that we say to bring people to God.
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Speaker 5: And I you know, my book is called Dare to
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Speaker 5: Be True. My podcast is called Stay True, like really
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Speaker 5: wholeheartedly feeling I feel led to speak the truth, and
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Speaker 5: sometimes that's the really hard truth and the things that
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Speaker 5: I think a lot of people may shy away from,
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Speaker 5: or you know that causes rise in people, or that
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Speaker 5: people you know strongly disagree with. And so there's been
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Speaker 5: lots of little things here and there. Of course, in
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Speaker 5: the last like probably a few months, there's been really
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Speaker 5: big headliners, which is it was like back to back weeks.
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Speaker 5: I was like, you guys, I need a break. I
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Speaker 5: just need a second, a second to catch up. But
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Speaker 5: I'm also you know, I'm.
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Speaker 4: Not I'm not surprised by it.
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Speaker 5: I think in one case, there's situations where I take
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Speaker 5: a stand for something that's true and something that's biblical,
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Speaker 5: and the Bible is clear that there will be persecution
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Speaker 5: and pushback and people who don't understand, and I understand
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Speaker 5: that aspect of it. And then I think that there's
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Speaker 5: another side to things where there's moments where I learn
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Speaker 5: and I'm like, wow, I said that in a way,
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Speaker 5: or you know, Grant said that in a way that
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Speaker 5: wasn't how we intended for to come across and that
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Speaker 5: wasn't what we intended for it to feel like. And
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Speaker 5: you know, in the context of that particular podcast, we
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Speaker 5: did a whole podcast on God's discipline and just how
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Speaker 5: you know, Biblically, it talks about in scripture how God
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Speaker 5: disciplines those that he loves and what is God's discipline
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Speaker 5: and how do you know if you're being disciplined by God?
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Speaker 5: You know, this podcast was recorded like two or three
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Speaker 5: months before it came out, like and so then when
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Speaker 5: it came out, we were just like so surprised, I think,
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Speaker 5: and taken back about the response and reaction to it.
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Speaker 5: And when we went back and watched the part that
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Speaker 5: got taken you know, I will say a little out
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Speaker 5: of context of what went viral. We I think we're
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Speaker 5: just really really saddened and it was really hard. Like
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Speaker 5: we we've spent I mean still to this day the
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Speaker 5: last two months we haven't spoken about it publicly and
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Speaker 5: just have spent the last couple of months just praying
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Speaker 5: and bringing our community into it and really wrestling and
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Speaker 5: taking it before the Lord of just like you know,
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Speaker 5: where how can we learn from this?
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Speaker 4: How can we grow from this?
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Speaker 5: And I think we we have a desire to bring on,
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Speaker 5: you know, a couple of professionals in this space to
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Speaker 5: just like talk about it openly and just learn. You know,
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Speaker 5: we kind of spoke from a place of like our
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Speaker 5: daughters seven months old, we have not even had to
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Speaker 5: have this conversation yet about you know, what we're going
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Speaker 5: to do whenever she you know, says no and yells
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Speaker 5: in mommy's face, Like, we haven't had to have this
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Speaker 5: moment of like what are we going to do? Like
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Speaker 5: she hasn't even spoken her first word yet, and so
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Speaker 5: I think we just were kind of speaking flippantly and
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Speaker 5: really yeah, walked away from that where we were like, wow,
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Speaker 5: we need to be really careful with how things come
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Speaker 5: across and with how we say things. But yeah, just
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Speaker 5: been taking this time to really like process through it
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Speaker 5: and pray through it and then also learns like, yeah, wow,
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Speaker 5: things can get taken out of context, and that was
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Speaker 5: definitely not our heart behind it. Our heart is like
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Speaker 5: you said, Ben, I mean for everybody to come to
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Speaker 5: say a true podcast, they hear the gospel presentation, they
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Speaker 5: hear the truth, and they feel welcomed wherever they're at
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Speaker 5: on their faith journey, and they're not feeling judged or
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Speaker 5: they're not wanting to run from it or be resistant
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Speaker 5: to it, but that they feel invited and like they
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Speaker 5: can come and be a part of it and hopefully
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Speaker 5: grow from it.
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Speaker 4: So we're learning just like everybody else.
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Speaker 5: And like you said, you know a lot of times
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Speaker 5: we say things and it's like in a public way.
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Speaker 5: You just like people make these comments all the time.
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Speaker 5: But then when you do it in a public way
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Speaker 5: and people take it out of context, it's just like okay,
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Speaker 5: like wow, this is.
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Speaker 4: I'm just learning. We're all learning and we're growing and.
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Speaker 5: That's what great and I are just trying to do
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Speaker 5: just ask God, like how can we learn and grow
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Speaker 5: from this? And how do you want to make good
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Speaker 5: of all this?
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Speaker 3: This is going to come back to Dare to be True.
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Speaker 3: It's interesting. I was just at a Christian leadership conference
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Speaker 3: in Chicago.
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Speaker 2: It's a bunch of young people.
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Speaker 3: It's an incredible little conference led by two people that
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Speaker 3: I think you know. And one of the conversations that
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Speaker 3: I found so interesting that came up. We did a
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Speaker 3: bunch of breakouts that I think is going to become
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Speaker 3: a very influential topic within the Christian Church is accountability,
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Speaker 3: because there's a reason we have a bajillion different denominations.
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Speaker 3: There's a reason why there's a million people of faith,
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Speaker 3: all believing different things. You and I sit here as
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Speaker 3: people who follow Jesus Ashley as well, and we would
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Speaker 3: not agree on some of the core elements that we
12:51
Speaker 3: find to be so vital to our faith. We wouldn't
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Speaker 3: and that's just the truth of the Christian tradition. It's
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Speaker 3: never been unanimous. And so one of the ways that
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Speaker 3: we work through that is having brothers and sisters and
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Speaker 3: people that we believe in hold us accountable and allow
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Speaker 3: us to bounce ideas off of I think it is
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Speaker 3: a way to come to truth is to allow God
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Speaker 3: to speak through others.
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Speaker 2: And allow us to be open to learning.
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Speaker 3: And So, as you wrote this book, and as you've
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Speaker 3: entered in a marriage and parenthood, how has your relationship
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Speaker 3: with truth changed and grown? And where do you lean
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Speaker 3: on for truth? Because here's the truth, Mattie, I've been there,
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Speaker 3: I've done it. You say something publicly that you feel
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Speaker 3: so strongly about. In ten years, I've looked back on
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Speaker 3: things and I put my head in the pill.
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Speaker 2: I'm like, why were you so dumb?
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Speaker 3: Why were you so confident in that it isn't the
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Speaker 3: way things work out. I look back on my middle
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Speaker 3: school purity movement that didn't work out the way I
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Speaker 3: thought it was going to. And so there's just this
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Speaker 3: process of learning and changing that I think is so
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Speaker 3: interesting and I want to hear your perspective on it.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think I'll take it first with
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Speaker 5: truth and then kind of end with like accountability in people.
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Speaker 5: But I think, you know, you look at even in Scripture,
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Speaker 5: in John chapter eighteen, you see this conversation between this
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Speaker 5: Roman governor and Jesus, and he asked Jesus and John eighteen,
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Speaker 5: he says, Hey, what is truth? And I just see
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Speaker 5: that question being asked in our generation today and so
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Speaker 5: many people searching for the answer to that question of
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Speaker 5: what is truth? And I know for my own life, like,
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Speaker 5: there's been a lot of different seasons where I've tried
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Speaker 5: to place that in a lot of different things to
14:37
Speaker 5: search for the meaning of truth or to find my
14:40
Speaker 5: truth or a truth. And there's this kind of like
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Speaker 5: this juxtaposition moment in Scripture and Proverbs, and in John
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Speaker 5: chapter fourteen where there's this one verse in Proverbs where
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Speaker 5: it says there's a way that appears to be right,
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Speaker 5: but in the end it leads to death. And then
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Speaker 5: Jesus says in John fourteen six, I am the Way,
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Speaker 5: the Truth and the Life. And so there's a lot
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Speaker 5: of truths, there are a lot of ways. But what
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Speaker 5: I believe is that when Jesus says he is the Truth,
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Speaker 5: that there is only one truth, and there's only one
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Speaker 5: truth that leads to life and life eternal. I think
15:14
Speaker 5: we live in a time where there's a lot of
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Speaker 5: confusion around truth and what is truth, and everyone has
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Speaker 5: like their truth, which is why I really felt led
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Speaker 5: to write this book, and I do I think to
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Speaker 5: what you're saying, Ben, it's so important when I mean,
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Speaker 5: we were not made to go through this life alone,
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Speaker 5: and so I mean wherever you're at in your faith journey,
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Speaker 5: but especially as believers like staying true and daring to
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Speaker 5: be true, it requires having people who believe that around
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Speaker 5: you to hold you accountable to that, to push.
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Speaker 4: You closer to that.
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Speaker 5: And so that's a huge part of I mean a
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Speaker 5: huge part of my life, a huge part of mine
15:51
Speaker 5: ignorance life is having those people that aren't afraid to
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Speaker 5: call us out, call us high or lead us to
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Speaker 5: the truth, Remind us of the truth, encourage us with
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Speaker 5: the truth, pray for us. And I mean even to
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Speaker 5: what we were just talking about with the podcast stuff.
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Speaker 5: I mean, there's been moments even a couple of weeks ago,
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Speaker 5: where we came to our community group and we just
16:11
Speaker 5: sat down together and we were like, hey, guys, this
16:13
Speaker 5: is what's going on. We love, we would love your
16:17
Speaker 5: wise counsel and your wisdom and your prayers, and we
16:19
Speaker 5: just talked about it. We cried together, we prayed together,
16:22
Speaker 5: we opened up the Word of God together.
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Speaker 4: And I think that when.
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Speaker 5: You build your life on true that you've got in
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Speaker 5: Matthew seven, when you build your life on the rock
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Speaker 5: of Jesus Christ, like even when storms come and you
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Speaker 5: get knocked you know, people try to knock you down,
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Speaker 5: or things happen that are out of your control, or
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Speaker 5: things are going on around you that feel hopeless and hard,
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Speaker 5: when you have your life built on the rock, like
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Speaker 5: you're not going to come crashing down. And there's another
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Speaker 5: you know example that it gives in Matthew seven of
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Speaker 5: the person who builds on the sand, and you know
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Speaker 5: that person is called the foolish builder. Because when you
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Speaker 5: build your life on something that's as flimsy as you know,
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Speaker 5: my truth, that's up to my feelings and that's up
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Speaker 5: to my you know, experiences, and not on something that's
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Speaker 5: concrete and short and everlasting. That and when I start
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Speaker 5: getting attacked by people, when I start getting things going
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Speaker 5: on around me or lies being fed to my mind,
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Speaker 5: like I'm crashing down because now all of a sudden,
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Speaker 5: I'm questioning everything. And so for me, having like Jesus
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Speaker 5: as my anchor, my foundation, my truth, my security is
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Speaker 5: truly everything, so that no matter what's going on, whether
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Speaker 5: it's things in the world like shootings and stabbings and
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Speaker 5: things that feel just so just depressing and hopeless and
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Speaker 5: sad and scary, or whether it's just my own mind
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Speaker 5: and feeling and trusive thoughts are binding things in my
17:45
Speaker 5: own mind, Like I've got to have a foundation of
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Speaker 5: truth that I can rely on and lean on no
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Speaker 5: matter what, and then having those friends remind me of
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Speaker 5: that and hold me accountable so that when I'm believing
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Speaker 5: a lie, I'm like, hey, can I can I tell
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Speaker 5: you that I'm believing a lie right now? And can
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Speaker 5: you just remind me of what's true? Because I'm honestly
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Speaker 5: just I'm confused, Maddie.
18:05
Speaker 6: When I'm watching the clip of you guys talking about spanking,
18:09
Speaker 6: I watch it and I see your point of view,
18:12
Speaker 6: and I go, that is so like it's whatever anybody choose,
18:17
Speaker 6: Like that's how she wants to do it, the zo
18:19
Speaker 6: I want to do it totally respect either decision in parenting.
18:23
Speaker 2: I think that what people mostly.
18:26
Speaker 6: Had an issue with was was the way Grant seemed
18:30
Speaker 6: a little bit excited about it. How did you how
18:35
Speaker 6: did you guys navigate that together as a couple?
18:38
Speaker 4: That response totally.
18:40
Speaker 5: I mean again, I think it goes back to what
18:43
Speaker 5: I was just saying of just like we've just been
18:45
Speaker 5: prayerful and you know, just just repenting and also just
18:49
Speaker 5: like inviting people in to that conversation, and we haven't,
18:54
Speaker 5: you know, publicly made any kind of I think we
18:58
Speaker 5: just live in such a culture where it's never enough,
19:01
Speaker 5: like if you say something that's mine or not perfect,
19:03
Speaker 5: like they demand a statement and we just life like that.
19:07
Speaker 5: I'm like, no, then I'm going to be making statements
19:09
Speaker 5: left and right like all the time. We just we
19:12
Speaker 5: have such an offended culture that like if if if
19:16
Speaker 5: they don't agree with what you say, or they don't
19:18
Speaker 5: like how you said it, they're gonna attack and demand
19:23
Speaker 5: an apology. And I just I think for us it's like, hey,
19:26
Speaker 5: before we make any kind of you know, video, or
19:29
Speaker 5: address any type of situation, like, we just want to
19:32
Speaker 5: make sure it's filtered through. Like it's not emotional and
19:36
Speaker 5: it's not reactionary. It's it's led by wisdom, and we're
19:40
Speaker 5: inviting community into it, and we're responding in a way
19:43
Speaker 5: that is glorifying to God. And yeah, that's not doing
19:48
Speaker 5: it to please people, but that's doing it to please God.
19:51
Speaker 5: And we've just really felt, as we've prayed about it,
19:54
Speaker 5: to just like wait upon the Lord right now and
19:57
Speaker 5: you know, just believing that there will be an opportunit
20:00
Speaker 5: unity for us to like fully address it all and
20:03
Speaker 5: for God to make good of this. But I do
20:06
Speaker 5: think that that was for sure, like the part of
20:09
Speaker 5: it that we just felt really saddened over was the
20:13
Speaker 5: way in which it was said. That's definitely not the
20:16
Speaker 5: way and how we feel that's not at all how
20:20
Speaker 5: Grant feels.
20:22
Speaker 4: I think the reality is is like that is.
20:26
Speaker 5: Like that's his little girl and he loves her so
20:29
Speaker 5: much and there's no part of him that would. Yeah,
20:34
Speaker 5: I think it just was a moment where it's like
20:37
Speaker 5: when you're at dinner with friends and you're just being
20:39
Speaker 5: silly and then you don't even realize like what you're saying, and.
20:42
Speaker 4: You're kind of like, wait, do I even mean what
20:44
Speaker 4: I just said? Liked? Wait did I even like? I
20:46
Speaker 4: don't think I that came across the right way.
20:48
Speaker 5: And I think it was just one of those moments
20:50
Speaker 5: where we were just we were just chatting and talking
20:53
Speaker 5: and kind of having a moment of being silly about
20:55
Speaker 5: a subject that we weren't even fully like informed on
20:58
Speaker 5: and that we haven't even fully just gussed together. And
21:02
Speaker 5: uh and then it, you know, and then it came
21:04
Speaker 5: out and people have a lot of opinions, and we're
21:08
Speaker 5: brand new to this parenting world, and so I didn't
21:11
Speaker 5: know that there was this many opinions about parenting world,
21:15
Speaker 5: and so you know, we're we're just we're brand new
21:18
Speaker 5: to all this. And I just always believe in in
21:21
Speaker 5: learning and growing. I think there's always a part that
21:24
Speaker 5: you can own. And then I always think that there's
21:27
Speaker 5: you know, there may be truth to some of the
21:28
Speaker 5: things that we were saying. And then there's also like
21:31
Speaker 5: some things we can own with it, and so it's
21:33
Speaker 5: just this like, Lord, how do we how do we
21:36
Speaker 5: guide this? And we're just taking it to God and
21:39
Speaker 5: to our friends.
21:40
Speaker 6: No, I totally understand what you're saying about statement culture.
21:42
Speaker 6: It's like you said this about this, but you didn't
21:45
Speaker 6: say something about this, and it's like, right, yeah.
21:49
Speaker 2: That made sense. Actually, you guys, I mean.
21:54
Speaker 4: That's what you were saying. You can't win.
21:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you.
21:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:57
Speaker 3: And I'm the king of saying things at a dinner
21:59
Speaker 3: table with friends that the next morning I wake up
22:02
Speaker 3: and be like, I shouldn't have said that.
22:03
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Jessica. It's just not going to get out
22:07
Speaker 2: in the mainstream.
22:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I continue to be the weird one in this relationship.
22:11
Speaker 3: Madd Before we really do the quick transition transition to
22:15
Speaker 3: strictly about dare to be true, you said that your
22:19
Speaker 3: your hope, that grants hope, that your relational hope, that
22:23
Speaker 3: your entire hope is to point people to the truth,
22:28
Speaker 3: which is Jesus uh, and that is the solid rock
22:33
Speaker 3: and foundation. That's awesome, But I think in today's world,
22:40
Speaker 3: and this is my creative way of transitioning us to
22:43
Speaker 3: there to be true with ai and noise and statement
22:47
Speaker 3: culture and things being said and things being said that
22:50
Speaker 3: maybe you have to backtrack on or explain a little more.
22:54
Speaker 3: I think our world is struggling with so much noise
22:57
Speaker 3: and so much information that sometimes it's hard to even
23:00
Speaker 3: answer the question who is Jesus? And what exactly are
23:04
Speaker 3: you telling me, Mattie, Because you say you're pointing me
23:06
Speaker 3: to this thing that's true. You're pointing me to this
23:09
Speaker 3: God that loves, You're pointing me to this God that saves.
23:12
Speaker 3: But I don't even really know what you're talking about
23:14
Speaker 3: because there's a thousand things below that that confuse me.
23:16
Speaker 2: And so when you say that, can you.
23:20
Speaker 3: Define a little clear of what exactly you're trying to
23:23
Speaker 3: point people to?
23:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, okay, Well, we all want to know truth
23:30
Speaker 5: and we all want to be free, and the two
23:33
Speaker 5: go hand in hand. Jesus says I am the Way,
23:36
Speaker 5: the Truth and the life, and then in John eight
23:38
Speaker 5: thirty two, Jesus says, you will know the truth, and
23:42
Speaker 5: the truth will set you free. And so the question
23:45
Speaker 5: is really not a matter of what is truth, but
23:48
Speaker 5: rather who is truth? And Scripture is clear that that
23:52
Speaker 5: person is Jesus. And when we walk around with our
23:56
Speaker 5: truth and your truth, eventually our truth will be confronted
24:00
Speaker 5: with the truth. And the truth is the only truth
24:03
Speaker 5: that will lead to real life and real freedom. And
24:06
Speaker 5: you just look at our world today, I mean, you
24:08
Speaker 5: just see an increase as you know, the freedom of
24:10
Speaker 5: expression movements, and that your truth live your truth, and
24:14
Speaker 5: all these different you know, opinions AI, all these things
24:18
Speaker 5: that have increased. You see also an increase in in
24:22
Speaker 5: suicide and murder and hopelessness and depression and anxiety and
24:26
Speaker 5: all of these different things. But if if you, if
24:30
Speaker 5: we were to all say, like none of us believe
24:33
Speaker 5: in Jesus, Like my encouragement would be to just start
24:39
Speaker 5: reading in the Book of John and ask, pray, ask Jesus, hey,
24:44
Speaker 5: will you reveal yourself to me?
24:46
Speaker 4: If you really are who you say you are, show
24:48
Speaker 4: me prove it.
24:50
Speaker 5: And I've just I've seen every single time that prayer
24:53
Speaker 5: get answered.
24:55
Speaker 4: And I see a generation.
24:57
Speaker 5: I mean right now, I've been a part of of
25:00
Speaker 5: a ministry where we've been going across college campuses and
25:04
Speaker 5: we're experiencing and seeing thousands and thousands and thousands of
25:07
Speaker 5: college students who are so hungry, and they're so desperate
25:12
Speaker 5: for something that's real, for something that lasts, for something
25:15
Speaker 5: that provides real peace and real hope and real joy.
25:20
Speaker 5: And what they're seeing is these things that the world
25:23
Speaker 5: promises of truth and freedom and where life is found,
25:27
Speaker 5: just leaves them more empty. And so we're having these
25:30
Speaker 5: conversations with college students, and I can even say that
25:32
Speaker 5: from my own personal experience in my past of trying
25:35
Speaker 5: to find those things in a relationship, trying to find
25:38
Speaker 5: those things in a following, trying to find those things
25:40
Speaker 5: in materialism, trying to find those things in a friend,
25:43
Speaker 5: you name it, in money, whatever it may be. And
25:47
Speaker 5: you see these college students come forward and they're like, man,
25:50
Speaker 5: I've tried everything. I've tried to find it in drugs, alcohol, relationships, sex,
25:54
Speaker 5: social media, I mean everything, you name it, and there's
25:57
Speaker 5: got to be more because I feel so empty. And
26:00
Speaker 5: so at the same time as I'm saying, we have
26:03
Speaker 5: a very real God, and he is the truth and
26:05
Speaker 5: he is the way. The reality is, is that we
26:08
Speaker 5: also have a very real enemy. And Satan is not
26:11
Speaker 5: this like silly cartoon villain in character. He is an
26:15
Speaker 5: enemy who comes in to steal kill and destroy. He lies,
26:17
Speaker 5: he deceives, he tempts because he wants to see us bound.
26:21
Speaker 4: He wants to see us hopeless.
26:24
Speaker 5: And that's the reality, is that there is good versus evil,
26:27
Speaker 5: That there is a good God that leads us to
26:31
Speaker 5: life and that wants to see us live in freedom,
26:34
Speaker 5: and there is an enemy who his ways lead to
26:37
Speaker 5: death and he wants to see us live in bondage.
26:40
Speaker 4: And so there is a wrestle and there is a struggle.
26:44
Speaker 5: And what I believe is like when we experience the
26:48
Speaker 5: truth of Jesus Christ, and when we choose to believe
26:50
Speaker 5: the lie, or when we choose to believe the truth,
26:53
Speaker 5: we defeat the liar and we defeat those lies that
26:56
Speaker 5: have been binding us. And so yeah, that's that's what
26:59
Speaker 5: I would say is Jesus has changed my life and
27:02
Speaker 5: he can change yours too. And when we choose to
27:04
Speaker 5: just say, hey, Jesus, reveal yourself to me, I want
27:07
Speaker 5: to follow you.
27:07
Speaker 4: I want to know you.
27:09
Speaker 5: All of the questions that we have or all the
27:11
Speaker 5: things that are so confusing, or like, wow, the Bible
27:14
Speaker 5: is so intense, and I'm just I have so many
27:16
Speaker 5: questions and I have so many feelings it just it
27:19
Speaker 5: just starts little by little, like you don't just have
27:22
Speaker 5: this overnight like moment where you understand everything about everything.
27:25
Speaker 5: I still have questions. I still have things that I'm
27:28
Speaker 5: learning and growing in. And Jesus doesn't ask you to
27:31
Speaker 5: do all the right things and have it all figured
27:33
Speaker 5: out and get cleaned up to come to him. Jesus
27:35
Speaker 5: did all the right things for you, took all of
27:37
Speaker 5: his uncleanliness upon himself, and he came to us. And
27:41
Speaker 5: that is what makes Christianity different than every other religion
27:44
Speaker 5: and why I choose to follow Jesus as the truth,
27:48
Speaker 5: because he is God who came to me instead of
27:51
Speaker 5: all the other religions that say you got to be
27:53
Speaker 5: good enough to get to God.
27:56
Speaker 4: And that's what I love about our Jesus.
27:59
Speaker 3: I'm glad you said that you still have questions, because
28:01
Speaker 3: I think curiosity is my spiritual gift. I don't know
28:06
Speaker 3: in my many many years of following Jesus if I
28:10
Speaker 3: will ever have all the answers, but myke with reading
28:16
Speaker 3: this book there to be true and say, somebody does
28:22
Speaker 3: come face to face with the Divine, what is your
28:27
Speaker 3: hope from there? Because this world is noisy and I
28:30
Speaker 3: don't want to. I don't want to disregard that or
28:32
Speaker 3: say hey, everything does make sense, or the you know,
28:36
Speaker 3: the fifty different Christian movements that are all saying different
28:41
Speaker 3: things and standing for different things, all will become.
28:44
Speaker 2: Clear to you.
28:45
Speaker 3: And so what is your hope by somebody reading this
28:48
Speaker 3: and having a confrontation with the divine and hoping that
28:51
Speaker 3: this book maybe allows them some path forward to helping
28:54
Speaker 3: them understand this whole thing.
28:56
Speaker 2: What do you say to those people?
28:58
Speaker 5: Well, Jesus makes a very bold and clear claim that
29:01
Speaker 5: he is the only way to eternal life. And so
29:04
Speaker 5: my hope and prayer is that every single person who
29:06
Speaker 5: reads this book chooses to follow Jesus and.
29:11
Speaker 4: Because of that they have eternal life.
29:16
Speaker 5: You know, it talks about in scripture that the road
29:18
Speaker 5: to life is narrow and few find it, and there
29:21
Speaker 5: is a very broad and wide path that leads to destruction.
29:24
Speaker 5: And we live in a culture that says, hey, all
29:26
Speaker 5: paths lead to heaven. You can be a good person,
29:28
Speaker 5: you can be good enough and work your way there.
29:30
Speaker 5: And Jesus says that's not true. Good works, religion, moral living,
29:34
Speaker 5: it can't save you. Your political party, your church attendance,
29:38
Speaker 5: your upbringing, the family you were raised in, owning a Bible,
29:42
Speaker 5: having across necklace, having a Bible verse in your Instagram bio.
29:45
Speaker 5: Those things don't save you. Those things don't make you
29:47
Speaker 5: a Christian. Only his grace and faith in Him and
29:52
Speaker 5: choosing to follow him makes you a follower of Jesus.
29:56
Speaker 5: And John fourteen six, he says, I'm the way the
29:58
Speaker 5: truth in the life. No one can the Father except
30:01
Speaker 5: through Me, And so any teaching that says otherwise, any
30:04
Speaker 5: other religion, any other person that speaks otherwise. It may
30:08
Speaker 5: sound loving and inclusive in the moment, but it's ultimately
30:11
Speaker 5: unloving because it leads to eternal separation from God. And
30:14
Speaker 5: so I pray that every person who reads there to
30:17
Speaker 5: be true has an encounter, like you said, with the divine,
30:20
Speaker 5: they have an encounter with this Jesus, who yes, makes
30:23
Speaker 5: a very exclusive claim of he is the only way
30:26
Speaker 5: to eternal life. But it's also the most inclusive invitation.
30:31
Speaker 5: It is addressed to everybody. Every single person can make
30:35
Speaker 5: a decision to follow Jesus. And so I pray that
30:39
Speaker 5: that all of the questions and confusions maybe get answered,
30:43
Speaker 5: or maybe they don't. And you just start this journey
30:45
Speaker 5: with Jesus, and you continue to ask for wisdom, and
30:49
Speaker 5: you continue to study the Bible and bring in godly
30:53
Speaker 5: community and get plugged into a local church, and you
30:56
Speaker 5: figure those questions out. There's certain things we won't understand.
30:59
Speaker 5: There's certain things about this world that we live in
31:01
Speaker 5: because it's so broken and because it's sinful, that are
31:05
Speaker 5: confusing and that are frustrating. And the division, the hatred,
31:09
Speaker 5: the violence, the injustice, you name it. But what we
31:13
Speaker 5: know as Christians and as believers is that Heaven is
31:16
Speaker 5: our home. And so this life on earth is going
31:20
Speaker 5: to be full of a lot of brokenness.
31:22
Speaker 4: But I also know that I'm living for a much
31:24
Speaker 4: better life.
31:26
Speaker 5: And that's my prayer for every person that reads this book,
31:29
Speaker 5: is that they get saved, they find Jesus, and that
31:33
Speaker 5: we get to spend eternity together.
31:45
Speaker 3: You mentioned AI in this book, and the confusing elements
31:50
Speaker 3: of AI. It's not going anywhere. It's one of the
31:54
Speaker 3: topics that I'm most curious about right now. And we
31:57
Speaker 3: have a ton, really in the last last two years,
32:01
Speaker 3: tons of debate on transhumanism and the idea that humans
32:06
Speaker 3: were created in God's image and can continue to become
32:10
Speaker 3: like God if we live longer. All these things are
32:14
Speaker 3: very interesting debates, and you have people well intentioned that
32:17
Speaker 3: I cannot say who are or are not followers of Jesus.
32:21
Speaker 3: That's not my place making great arguments on both sides.
32:25
Speaker 3: So as you consider AI, and as you consider the
32:28
Speaker 3: advancements in technology, and also what AI is doing to
32:33
Speaker 3: confuse us with fake things in this world, I guess like,
32:40
Speaker 3: as you wrote this and as you process all these things,
32:43
Speaker 3: kind of where was your mind at?
32:44
Speaker 2: How did it spit you out in there? What do
32:46
Speaker 2: you hope people learn about it?
32:48
Speaker 4: Yeah? And I do.
32:49
Speaker 5: I think it's so it's such a good question to
32:52
Speaker 5: be like, what we all feel like?
32:53
Speaker 4: What is real? What can I trust?
32:55
Speaker 5: Because there's so many things out there that you're like,
32:57
Speaker 5: I don't know if that's real or if that's AI.
32:59
Speaker 5: I don't know if that actually happened or if someone
33:02
Speaker 5: created this on some crazy software system. So I now
33:06
Speaker 5: am feeling what's wilds. I actually started writing this book
33:09
Speaker 5: before AI, I feel like, really became like popular. I
33:13
Speaker 5: feel like when I first started writing this book, it
33:14
Speaker 5: was kind of more people who were just like super
33:17
Speaker 5: super into that kind of stuff, knew about it, and
33:20
Speaker 5: now you know, like chat GBT, everybody's on it like
33:22
Speaker 5: twenty four to seven all the time. So it's different
33:26
Speaker 5: now my book coming out versus when I wrote it,
33:28
Speaker 5: which is crazy because it feels more relevant. This message
33:30
Speaker 5: feels more relevant even now than when I first started
33:34
Speaker 5: writing it. But I do I think that that question
33:36
Speaker 5: is a very fair question of like what's real and
33:39
Speaker 5: what can I trust?
33:40
Speaker 4: And that's what I do.
33:41
Speaker 5: I see a generation asking that question of they just
33:43
Speaker 5: want to know what they can trust, They just want
33:45
Speaker 5: to know what's real. And I think at the same time,
33:49
Speaker 5: you can use something like AI as a tool. I
33:52
Speaker 5: don't think it ever should be used to replace, you know,
33:57
Speaker 5: your ability to be curious on your own and to
34:00
Speaker 5: search and to research and to create and to be creative.
34:04
Speaker 5: I think where it can get dangerous is it can
34:07
Speaker 5: rob us of hard work, of creativity, of you know,
34:13
Speaker 5: having to like yeah, put in the work to do
34:15
Speaker 5: a lot of research.
34:16
Speaker 4: And so that's where I think we have to be careful.
34:19
Speaker 5: And I think at the same time it can be
34:21
Speaker 5: a tool if it's stewarded well. For me, I'm never
34:24
Speaker 5: going to use AI to replace like my time with Jesus.
34:28
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna like treat it as Jesus where I'm
34:30
Speaker 5: asking chat GBT like questions that I would just ask Jesus. However,
34:36
Speaker 5: I do use it sometimes to be like, hey, can
34:39
Speaker 5: you explain this verse a little bit more?
34:41
Speaker 4: Can you give me some like backup context? Like what who?
34:44
Speaker 4: Who wrote this verse? In the vibe?
34:46
Speaker 3: Like?
34:46
Speaker 5: And then I also like to ask it lots of
34:48
Speaker 5: questions about even like you know, okay, Hoseanna's coming up
34:52
Speaker 5: on nine months, like is there anything I need to know?
34:55
Speaker 4: Chat? Like what what do I need to know? What
34:57
Speaker 4: do I need to read? And so I think that
34:59
Speaker 4: it can be used as a tool.
35:00
Speaker 5: I just think it gets dangerous when it robs us
35:04
Speaker 5: of our ability to work hard and be creative. And
35:06
Speaker 5: so I think, yeah, you just you kind of wrestle
35:09
Speaker 5: with that and just ask like, am I am I
35:11
Speaker 5: using this as a crutch? Am I am I allowing
35:13
Speaker 5: this to replace like everything like community. I mean, people
35:18
Speaker 5: use it even as just like their place to like
35:20
Speaker 5: vent and too and to open up. But I think
35:24
Speaker 5: that can get dangerous too, because you've got to have
35:27
Speaker 5: community in your life. You got to have people around
35:29
Speaker 5: you that know what's going on and know how to
35:32
Speaker 5: be there for you and know how to love you
35:34
Speaker 5: and pray for you, and so yeah, I think it's
35:37
Speaker 5: just a balance the same way a lot of things are,
35:40
Speaker 5: and you just see it as a tool, but not
35:42
Speaker 5: like a replacement of good things that God created. Yeah.
35:46
Speaker 6: Sometimes I get freaked out when like a friend's like, oh,
35:48
Speaker 6: but to my chat, should we tease my best friend?
35:50
Speaker 2: And I'm like, please, no, please know.
35:52
Speaker 6: I know you're kind of joking there, but you know, Maddie,
35:57
Speaker 6: as Ben said earlier in the podcast, there have been
36:00
Speaker 6: headlines and there's been one that we would just people
36:03
Speaker 6: would be like, how did you not ask her about that?
36:07
Speaker 6: So the one a couple months ago about your previous
36:11
Speaker 6: addiction to porn and masturbation, when you said that on
36:16
Speaker 6: the podcast and it made headlines, was that another moment
36:18
Speaker 6: where you're just like, oh, well, I was just free free,
36:21
Speaker 6: just just talking too freely right there? Or are you
36:24
Speaker 6: really glad that that message got out there to your audience.
36:28
Speaker 5: No, I'm really glad that that message got out there.
36:30
Speaker 5: I talk about it a lot in my book. I
36:31
Speaker 5: have a whole chapter on it. I think what's so
36:34
Speaker 5: interesting is that you know the enemy often wants to
36:38
Speaker 5: identify us by our scars, but Jesus says, no, no, no,
36:41
Speaker 5: I identify you by my scars. And so the very
36:44
Speaker 5: thing that used to keep me bound, like now I
36:46
Speaker 5: get to boast in it and be like, yeah, that
36:48
Speaker 5: used to keep me stuck, Like that used to be
36:50
Speaker 5: my struggle, that used to be an addiction in high school.
36:54
Speaker 5: And and of course, like you know, the headlines make
36:57
Speaker 5: it want to seem like it was like last year,
36:58
Speaker 5: but you know, this was this was something that I
37:01
Speaker 5: struggled with in high school and for so long it
37:04
Speaker 5: kept me bound, and it kept me from living a
37:06
Speaker 5: life of freedom and purpose and confidence and just the
37:09
Speaker 5: life that Jesus died to give me. And and so
37:12
Speaker 5: I want to I want to talk about it. There's
37:14
Speaker 5: so many girls. I mean, you talk about not even
37:17
Speaker 5: in just like the space of people who don't know Jesus.
37:19
Speaker 5: You talk about in churches, you talk about at Christian camps,
37:22
Speaker 5: you talk about in the most faith spaces. This is
37:25
Speaker 5: a really big struggle for a lot of girls. And
37:29
Speaker 5: so I will always be the first to I think
37:31
Speaker 5: vulnerability breeds vulnerability, and I think it creates an opportunity
37:35
Speaker 5: for others to follow and say, yeah, I've actually struggled
37:38
Speaker 5: with this too.
37:40
Speaker 4: And I actually had.
37:42
Speaker 5: Multiple people message me and just be like, hey, I've
37:45
Speaker 5: never told anyone this struggle, And after listening to your podcast,
37:49
Speaker 5: it gave me the courage and the confidence to share
37:52
Speaker 5: this with some friends.
37:55
Speaker 4: And I think that.
37:56
Speaker 5: We have done a really big disservice in the church
37:59
Speaker 5: and in the world. When we talk about purity, I
38:02
Speaker 5: think it sparks very strong reactions. I mean I learned
38:05
Speaker 5: that even when I look on The Bachelor and talked about,
38:08
Speaker 5: you know, saving myself for marriage and fantasy suites and
38:11
Speaker 5: all of that stuff. I mean, it sparked a lot
38:13
Speaker 5: of strong reactions. And I think there's a lot of
38:16
Speaker 5: distorted teachings out there. But my heart behind purity is
38:20
Speaker 5: yes to address in God's heart. Really, behind purity is
38:23
Speaker 5: yes to address you know, what we do with our body.
38:27
Speaker 5: But it's way beyond that. It says in Matthew five eight,
38:30
Speaker 5: blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
38:32
Speaker 5: It's so much more about our heart, our thoughts, our motives,
38:35
Speaker 5: our desires, And what I want to see is this generation.
38:41
Speaker 5: I want to see this generation free, and I think
38:43
Speaker 5: there's a lot of people that are bound in this
38:45
Speaker 5: area when it comes to sexual sin and sexual sin addictions,
38:49
Speaker 5: a lot of people that you wouldn't even expect, and
38:52
Speaker 5: a lot of people who have just been hiding it
38:55
Speaker 5: for so long. But I believe that purity is a
38:57
Speaker 5: blessing God wants to give us, not something he wants
38:59
Speaker 5: to withhold from us or take from us. Purity is
39:03
Speaker 5: truly the path to God's presence, It's the path to freedom,
39:07
Speaker 5: and it's an invitation for every one of us to
39:09
Speaker 5: experienced His experiences very best for our lives.
39:13
Speaker 3: Mattie, how do you find the strength to come out
39:15
Speaker 3: and say something like this publicly? Obviously, you know you
39:18
Speaker 3: and I both grew up in the church. We both
39:20
Speaker 3: probably were familiar with the purity movement, dances and conferences
39:26
Speaker 3: and rings that came across the stages, and we made
39:29
Speaker 3: some commitment to our parents at a very young age
39:31
Speaker 3: to never have sex with anybody, which looking back, was
39:35
Speaker 3: probably super awkward for everybody involved in that. There is
39:40
Speaker 3: a better way, Goodness, gracious, I went to college for
39:42
Speaker 3: two years of my life to teach sex ad in churches.
39:45
Speaker 2: There's just not a market for it. Shockingly.
39:48
Speaker 3: So this is a big topic when and obviously one
39:51
Speaker 3: that affects so many. So you come out and publicly
39:54
Speaker 3: say something like this, that is very vulnerable. But then
39:57
Speaker 3: also you have the desire to be a good parent
40:01
Speaker 3: and to walk Hosana through this process. I guess just
40:04
Speaker 3: elaborate if you can, on where you find the strength,
40:06
Speaker 3: and then what's your hopes for your daughter.
40:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, for so long, I too to what you were
40:12
Speaker 5: just talking about and referencing. I thought that purity meant
40:16
Speaker 5: I just had to have a really good reputation. I
40:18
Speaker 5: needed to be perfect. God was going to punish me
40:21
Speaker 5: if I had sex with someone. My parents were going
40:24
Speaker 5: to be so mad at me if I had sex
40:26
Speaker 5: with someone. And it was just like it was all
40:27
Speaker 5: about sex. It was all about what people thought, It
40:29
Speaker 5: was all about what I looked like on the outside.
40:32
Speaker 4: It was all about reputation, and it was all about me.
40:36
Speaker 5: And so for so long it created like there just
40:40
Speaker 5: there wasn't even freedom in me making that decision, or
40:43
Speaker 5: even a desire to make that decision. It was more
40:47
Speaker 5: I feel like I have to make this decision or
40:49
Speaker 5: I'm going to be punished, and so I my heart,
40:54
Speaker 5: my heart is that people understand that purity really is
40:59
Speaker 5: it's at and it leads to the life that Jesus
41:03
Speaker 5: wants us to have. And I hope that when I
41:07
Speaker 5: communicate that to my daughter, I share with her, you know,
41:11
Speaker 5: mommy's worst mistakes and also the lies that mommy believed
41:15
Speaker 5: about purity for so long and where I went wrong,
41:19
Speaker 5: and then also presenting her with what scripture says and
41:22
Speaker 5: with what truth says, and why it's following that truth
41:26
Speaker 5: that leads to freedom and that leads to life. I
41:30
Speaker 5: think about it like, for the longest time, I thought
41:33
Speaker 5: purity was like you know, when your parents would come
41:35
Speaker 5: up and be like, I need you to clean your room,
41:36
Speaker 5: and so you just like shove everything under your bed
41:38
Speaker 5: and you're like, I'm good, you know, and they come
41:40
Speaker 5: in and they're like, I don't see mess, so great job.
41:43
Speaker 5: And the reality is is that we just moved the
41:45
Speaker 5: mess to another place. And I think that's what happens
41:48
Speaker 5: so often when we think about purity, it's like, oh,
41:50
Speaker 5: I just have to hide it.
41:51
Speaker 4: I just have to cover it up.
41:54
Speaker 5: I just have to make sure it look I look
41:56
Speaker 5: good on the outside and that nobody else sees this
41:59
Speaker 5: mess or this struggle or this sin. Whereas God, when
42:02
Speaker 5: you read throughout scripture, you see like God cares so
42:05
Speaker 5: much more about our heart. And you can look really
42:08
Speaker 5: clean on the outside, but if your heart is full
42:10
Speaker 5: of impurity or you know, jealousy or hatred or whatever
42:14
Speaker 5: the sin may be, that is an impure, unclean heart.
42:17
Speaker 4: And so that's really.
42:19
Speaker 5: What I want people to to take from this book,
42:22
Speaker 5: what I would want my daughter to know, and that
42:25
Speaker 5: it has. When I fell for the lie of living
42:28
Speaker 5: in impurity, it led to bondage and shame and disappointment
42:33
Speaker 5: and self hatred and so many other things. But when
42:37
Speaker 5: I chose to follow what Jesus's truth was on the
42:42
Speaker 5: path to life, which is living a life of holiness
42:44
Speaker 5: and purity, it truly did lead to freedom. Like it
42:47
Speaker 5: led to joy, it led to peace, It led to
42:49
Speaker 5: purpose and confidence. I mean to even what you're talking
42:53
Speaker 5: about bin of like, how do you have the strength
42:55
Speaker 5: or the confidence to talk about these things? I mean, one,
42:59
Speaker 5: I know that that my life is not my own,
43:01
Speaker 5: and one day I'm going to be face to face
43:03
Speaker 5: with my Creator and I'm have to give an account
43:04
Speaker 5: for my life. And I don't want to hear you know, like,
43:08
Speaker 5: why didn't you speak about these things? Why didn't you
43:10
Speaker 5: stand firm on these things? And my response be well,
43:14
Speaker 5: I was so worried about what other people were going
43:15
Speaker 5: to think about me. I've always been someone that I'm like,
43:18
Speaker 5: I don't care what anybody thinks, Like, this is what
43:20
Speaker 5: I know is true, and this is what I know
43:22
Speaker 5: has led me to freedom, and I want everybody to
43:25
Speaker 5: experience this freedom. And so that's really my heart is,
43:28
Speaker 5: like I want to please God and I want other
43:30
Speaker 5: people to experience this freedom that I get to live
43:34
Speaker 5: and experience every day.
43:36
Speaker 3: Final question for you, Dare to be True forwards written
43:42
Speaker 3: by Jonathan JP Cluda. The subtitle is defeat the lies
43:49
Speaker 3: that bind you and live out the truth that sets
43:52
Speaker 3: you free. Maddie. For the reader, what is your hope
43:56
Speaker 3: that they get from this book? What is your hope
43:58
Speaker 3: that they closed the book feeling, learning, experiencing. Why would
44:03
Speaker 3: somebody read it? Give us like your minute long sales
44:05
Speaker 3: pitch Wow.
44:08
Speaker 5: Well, my hope is that you find Jesus and that
44:11
Speaker 5: there is a realization of the seriousness of sin and
44:15
Speaker 5: that you no longer have to carry shame or be
44:18
Speaker 5: bound by the lies that the enemy wants you to
44:21
Speaker 5: believe that there is a better way, That there is
44:24
Speaker 5: a way that leads to light and love and hope
44:27
Speaker 5: and peace, That there is a way that leads to
44:29
Speaker 5: you experiencing and living out your true God given purpose
44:33
Speaker 5: and your true God given identity and living a life
44:36
Speaker 5: that impacts and blesses other people. And so if you're
44:38
Speaker 5: feeling like there's got to be something more, I'm so
44:41
Speaker 5: bound and I don't even know why. I don't know
44:44
Speaker 5: why I feel so like something is just sucking the
44:47
Speaker 5: life out of me. My encouragement is read this book.
44:50
Speaker 5: You're going to find that there is there is so
44:53
Speaker 5: much more for you, and Jesus has a better way
44:56
Speaker 5: for you, and I'm excited for you to start that adventure.
45:00
Speaker 4: All right, guys.
45:00
Speaker 6: Will Dare to Be True is out September twenty third,
45:03
Speaker 6: and it is available for pre order right now.
45:06
Speaker 4: Thank you, guys, this is so fun, and thank you winning.
45:09
Speaker 3: Thank you Maddie when he was your guest hosting for free.
45:13
Speaker 3: She doesn't get paid for this.
45:14
Speaker 2: It's awesome.
45:16
Speaker 4: Oh good, thanks Maddie.
45:19
Speaker 2: We'll see you. Thanks Maddy, good luck with the buck.
45:21
Speaker 6: It's gonna do great, I'm sure.
45:23
Speaker 4: By so much so fun. Bye guys, Bye.
45:27
Speaker 1: Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeartRadio,
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Speaker 1: or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.