Chris Grainger: 1:22

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, chris Grainger. Let's jump in. All right, guys, it's your meat episode. I'm excited to be here with you, so let's get right into it.

Chris Grainger: 1:35

So the scripture of the week this week is in the book of Matthew, chapter six, verse 10. Ok, just one verse. It says your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, guys, go back, listen to the spiritual kickoff episode where we unpack this at length. Okay, so obviously this is part of Jesus's prayer where he's teaching us how to how to do that, and we want to see how we can simplify and apply this one verse to our life as disciples of Christ, because that's what you're called to be called to be a disciple. You check the Christian box Now start walking it out as a disciple.

Chris Grainger: 2:09

Okay, now, the story we have this week, or the guest we have, rather, has an interesting story. His name is Tyler Brown. This guy had it all right he was very athletic, he was a good student, he had a supportive family. A good student, he had a supportive family. Yet one decision almost cost him everything and this will really unpack how addiction can grab us. It can be a downward spiral. It can help, it can impede us from making good decisions and hurting other people tremendously. He talks a lot about some sexual immorality, some things, some sexual abuse rather as well as sexual immorality that entered his journey along the way and how he had to fight through that and ultimately it's going to lead us to how he found himself at the bottom of the pit and needed to surrender, and prayerfully he surrendered his life to the Lordship of Christ and now he's living radically free life. He's helping others share the gospel. He's a missionary. He lives in South Carolina, which we got to chat about that. He went to seminary right down the road where actually our home is in North Carolina.

Chris Grainger: 3:26

But just a powerful story, guys. This is one that if you know someone who's struggling through addiction or maybe you're struggling through this season with addiction there's hope, there's hope. So hear this story of hope and just listen to the transformative power that the Holy Spirit had in his life and just let that just be what you cling on to. Just hold on to it with all you have. Have faith, have hope, know that God loves you, so hopefully you enjoyed this conversation with Tyler Brown. Tyler, welcome to the Lion Within. Dennis, how are you doing today?

Tyler Brown: 4:10

Man doing good. Thanks for having me on the show.

Chris Grainger: 4:13

I'm excited to have you here, man, for sure, for sure. And before we get into your story, tell us just a little something fun about you, a fun fact that not many people know about you about you.

Tyler Brown: 4:27

A fun fact that not many people know about you. Oh, fun fact. Um well, I went to the world series when I was 11 years old in uh, kansas city playing playing baseball. So that was a. That was my first trip in an airplane and, uh, pretty fun time that's cool, man, that's very cool.

Chris Grainger: 4:39

So are you? So are you a fan for, for kansas city? I mean, what took you there?

Tyler Brown: 4:46

That's just where they were hosting the tournament. But no, no, no, I was playing. I was playing in the tournament.

Chris Grainger: 4:52

Oh. Yeah yeah, okay, so Little League World Series.

Tyler Brown: 4:56

It was U-Triple-S-A World Series. Yeah, it was a fun time.

Chris Grainger: 5:02

I got you, man. Okay, I missed that part, all right, all right, cool, cool. So what position did you play? I was center fielder. Nice, nice, good stuff, good stuff, man. Well, excited to have you here, tyler, I know you have an incredible story. I'm going to let you kind of just give you a lot of free will here with this conversation today. Maybe start us off a little bit about who you are, what your background and just kind of get the guys some foundational stuff before we get into it too deep.

Tyler Brown: 5:32

Cool. Well, currently I live in Charleston, south Carolina, that's a beautiful area right there.

Chris Grainger: 5:38

There you go.

Tyler Brown: 5:39

Yeah, nice beach vibes pretty close by Kind of small town vibes here too not like a huge major metro like you'd have in New York or Chicago or something, but I like to visit some of those major metros too. We take some trips to LA and DC and some of these places every now and then, so my work takes me to some of those big cities. Sometimes I'm a missionary with E3 Partners Ministries so I serve through church planning work, evangelism, disciple-making, mobilization and things like that. So I'm married. I got three little boys a seven-year-old, a five-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old as well. So all boys.

Chris Grainger: 6:28

I hear you. I have an 18-month-old little boy too, man, the rest of them are girls. I got three girls, but that 18-month-old, that dude is something else. Man, I hear you. I'm sure you got a lot of fun times going on there.

Tyler Brown: 6:40

He's wide open. Yeah, on there, he's wide open. Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. Where are you from originally? Um, I actually was born here and lived here in south carolina for a couple years, but, um, when I was two, I moved to north carolina and I grew up there, um went to high school there and, uh, another small town, ashboro, north carolina oh yeah, right there at the zoo man. Yeah, you got it. Went to the zoo a lot growing up.

Chris Grainger: 7:08

Hey, man, we live just north of Raleigh. So, yeah, so we're in Carolina too. Man, we probably should have known that before we started the interview. But there you go, we're learning this stuff. Live, guys. So that's cool, that's awesome. Yeah, I love going out to ashborough. It's a good, good, great area. Yeah, it's cool. Okay, well, I mean, get us into your story. You said you were a baseball player. I mean, that was kind of a little bit of who you were growing up.

Tyler Brown: 7:34

Right, you're pretty pretty good athlete yeah, that's right, that was uh man. That was life for me. You you know, on a daily basis, I would dream about being on the fields, being in the stadiums. And so go to school, come home after practice and just hit the, you know those little hit aways. Hit those things for hours, just bing bing.

Chris Grainger: 8:00

That's it, man.

Tyler Brown: 8:02

That noise just brings back memories of just hitting those baseballs with little metal bats.

Chris Grainger: 8:09

That's it. I mean, when did you start playing?

Tyler Brown: 8:13

I remember, four or five years old, I was playing tee ball.

Chris Grainger: 8:16

Yeah.

Tyler Brown: 8:19

Man, yeah, I took off from there and played on a pretty regular, probably daily basis for most of my childhood.

Chris Grainger: 8:27

Did you play like? I know there's lots around in the Carolinas, I'm sure probably all over now too. You have lots of travel leagues and things like that. Did you do that?

Tyler Brown: 8:35

Yeah, that was part of the U-Triple-S-A travel league that I was a part of.

Chris Grainger: 8:41

Okay.

Tyler Brown: 8:42

Did that all across the state and really across the country.

Chris Grainger: 8:46

Okay, that's great man. Well, I mean kind of that. It sounded like the sports was a big part of your identity growing up. So when did things start shifting for you?

Tyler Brown: 8:57

Man, it was a big shift when I was 16. One of my teammates introduced me to marijuana and smoked. That thing Went to class and my classmates were like man Tyler, your eyes are red, what's going on? I was like man. I don't know what's going on, but it was a powerful drug enough to take me to places I didn't want to go.

Chris Grainger: 9:26

Explain that man. What do you mean? That places you don't want to go?

Tyler Brown: 9:30

Gosh man it was. It was a drug. That just wasn't escape for me. So instead of excelling in the, in the practices and in the schoolwork and in family times I would, I would escape and be all alone and um, try to try to get high. And man, unfortunately, one of those times when I was um, I was really high, I was taken advantage of by a mentor of mine who you know, did some, just some, some awful things to to me sexual abuse, things like that, and and then the, the drugs got harder. After that I turned to crystal meth and was smoking methamphetamines for about five years, on and off.

Tyler Brown: 10:19

amphetamines for about five years, um, on and off. And the man, the, the, the pit of uh, despair, darkness, loneliness, um it was. It was a hard place to be for several years and just working, working at a ended up quitting all the sports I was doing, ended up working at a gas station and uh, just it was a it was a hard.

Chris Grainger: 10:53

it was a hard place to be man. So it started at 16, and let's back up a little bit too. So your faith journey what was that? Did you grow up in a? In a Christian home Like what, what, what did? What did that look like?

Tyler Brown: 11:02

No, not really. I remember going to church every now and then with my parents and my grandparents, but we weren't real regular attenders and faith wasn't a real priority. I do remember, though, learning some things. You grew up in the South, you know, in North Carolina, South Carolina yeah, you don't hear about Jesus.

Chris Grainger: 11:26

That's right.

Tyler Brown: 11:27

There was some things going on. I remember some of my high school students doing some prayer at the flagpole stuff like that, Talking about Jesus, and some. I remember going to like an Aw's or something and getting some touches with God, but no, it never was a real part of my life. But I remember one of those times when I was real lonely and really intoxicated and I was probably around 20, yeah, 20 years old and there was a cross on the wall in my bedroom. That was there whenever I moved in and I remember looking at that cross and I was remembering some of those things that I'd learned growing up about God and about the devil and I was thinking, man, I don't really. I don't, I don't think I really believe in God or or the devil, Um, but I just watched a movie. It was the movie 2012. And they were talking about you remember that movie.

Tyler Brown: 12:39

It's talking about the end of the world.

Chris Grainger: 12:40

Yeah, that's right. The flood was that the flood movie or something like that, or?

Tyler Brown: 12:44

yeah, it was some type of uh enough to grab my attention. Yeah, what if the world ended next year? And where would I be? And um, so I'm in this dark place, I'm thinking about eternity and I'm looking at this cross and these things are kind of swirling around my mind for probably the first time in my, in my adult life, really considering some, some things about faith or God. Um, in that moment I made the wrong choice. I took a lighter out of my pocket and I burned the cross and man, I think that was just an expression of gosh, I don't know. Whatever was in my in my heart was was anti-God and um, really selfish and um, I was gonna even man burning the cross. That's, that's almost demonic, right. So, um, even following just after, uh, uh, falling right into the enemy's hands and and some some of those things. So, anyway, burn the cross.

Tyler Brown: 13:50

Woke up the next morning, looked at that burn up cross and was like, oh, if there, if there is a god, then I'm not in a, I'm definitely not in a good spot with him. Yeah, had some remorse or some type of um awakening in that moment like gosh, what, who is this god? What if he is real? How can we, how can I get in a good place with him? And so I went to church. And, um, so I was that was around 20 years old for me and went to church, prayed, said God, you got to get me out of this mess I'm in, you got to rescue me from this darkness and I don't really understand it all, but I'm going to give it a shot. So I went to church. By God's grace, I met a lady there. She's my wife now and she bought me a Bible, she gave me a highlighter and she she said come with me to this Christian conference. And that conference was Passion in 2012 in Atlanta, georgia.

Tyler Brown: 14:56

OK, I don't know if you heard anything about that. Louis Giglio is the host and he brings guys like Francis Chan and John Piper and some of these guys are just preaching the gospel to these college students, saying let's make Jesus king of our generation, and things like that. These guys were pumped up and praising God and I was like what in the world?

Chris Grainger: 15:18

Did you hear? Was Piper there? Piper was preaching. Oh my gracious bro, alright, he definitely got your attention.

Tyler Brown: 15:24

I'm tracking now Piper there for Piper was preaching, oh my gracious, all right, so yeah, he definitely got your attention.

Chris Grainger: 15:27

I'm with, I'm, I'm tracking now Okay.

Tyler Brown: 15:30

He says a lot of big words like justification and sanctification, glorification. I didn't. I didn't really know what some of those words meant, but I could tell he was serious about it.

Chris Grainger: 15:43

Oh yeah, oh yeah, so yeah, oh yeah.

Tyler Brown: 15:46

So that was a big, that was a big conference for me. I went home a couple of weeks later processing you know these guys, they know God, they're part of the Christian community, they're going to heaven, they're, they're experiencing heaven right now. And I'm not, I'm on the outside of this and so, man, I still, I was still dabbling in the, the crystal meth actually, at that point, and uh, just, it's stuck in this place of. Am I going to give myself to the world or am I going to give myself to this, this jesus, who, who is God, and trust that there's life there?

Tyler Brown: 16:26

in that, and so I did. I prayed, I said God, will you forgive me for my sin, will you fill me with the Holy Spirit? And supernatural power came into my life at that moment and healed me of the drug addiction at that moment and healed me of the drug addiction and rescued me from uh, from my sin, from all my enemies, from from satan himself. And uh, give me a new hope, give me a new purpose, give me a new eternity, give me a new uh. Heaven came into my life in that moment and uh was everything for me.

Tyler Brown: 17:03

Um, I went to, I went to Ellie, the, the lady I was talking about invited me to the conference, right, and she's my wife now. And I said, ellie, I met, I'm a, I'm a Christian now. And she, she said I, I know. And uh, we got married. Um, probably two months later, I know, I proposed, got married. Probably two months later, I don't know, I proposed a couple months later and then in May. So five months later we got married and then, a few months after that, ended up going to a Bible college, a seminary in North Carolina Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Chris Grainger: 17:43

Well in Wake Forest. That's right yep, yeah, it's about 20, 30 minutes from where I live, buddy. So you went to Southeastern. Okay, so now, in that moment, at the Passion Conference, you said you surrendered your life to Christ, but you were still addicted to crystal meth. Right, did you have to go to any type of rehab or anything like that?

Tyler Brown: 18:07

No, no, I was. God just healed me. God took the addiction away.

Chris Grainger: 18:15

No kidding, yeah, I'm sure there's lots of guys listening. Any withdrawals, I mean. Obviously he took it away, but just physically. Were you able to remember anything about that time?

Tyler Brown: 18:30

Yeah, no, I was man. It's hard to explain. I was physically well. After that I was. I was smoking a lot of marijuana. I was smoking the meth was probably I don't know. I'd probably smoke meth twice that maybe a little more maybe, maybe three or four times that month, and so it wasn't a daily thing, I wasn't doing every day, but it was a. It was a pretty regular, pretty regular thing.

Tyler Brown: 19:03

So I don't know what I don't know what people experience in terms of withdrawals, if they're, if they're, you know, I didn't, I didn't experience them.

Chris Grainger: 19:16

Praise God, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Well, guys, we're going to be right back. We'll take a quick break. If you're a man who's looking for greater spiritual guidance into how to become a better leader, finding resources that you can trust and then implement can be daunting For me personally. I thought it was a lost cause and I decided to take the action, knowing that I wasn't alone. It was because of this wide gap that we created our Lion Withinist community, and the areas that we're helping Christian men grow are incredible. For instance, we've built ways for guys to lean in and grow through fun events like our daily spiritual kickoff, where you get that much-needed boost directly from God's Word, our Bible studies that always focus on how to discern and apply what we learn, and even our amazing forum where you can speak your mind without fear of getting shut down or judged by the extreme rules of modern day social media. On top of all that, we know that many men want to help overcoming issues and becoming stronger in many different areas. That's why we created several mastermind groups, where the iron truly sharpens iron. Our community is about having a growth mindset, accountability, intentionality and transparency. In other words, just leave fake you at home and come to community just as you are.

Chris Grainger: 20:36

I fully believe what we've built. I see the impact it's making on men right now and I would love to have you check it out. So start your very own 30-day free trial today to see how we can help you be a better leader. So if you're ready to take that first step, head over to thelinewithinus and get started. Your journey begins here. Visit thelinewithinus and I'll see you inside the den Tyler. I'm just curious man. So I mean, you had this moment to where God healed you and when you look back now, where was the bottom at? What did the bottom look like for you when you were going through the dark time, through the trials?

Tyler Brown: 21:29

a few years it felt like it wasn't. There were moments where I'm like man, this is the bottom. Um, I remember attempting suicide one night and um, there was.

Tyler Brown: 21:36

There were moments like um, gosh, uh, smoking, smoking a crack pipe, the bottom of a bathroom floor all alone, and it's like man, this is, this is the bottom there were sexual and very, um, disgusting sexual moments that I was, I was a part of and I was like man, this is, this is the bottom, and it seemed like the bottom came on a on a regular basis and it was just a whole, a whole season of bottom and I couldn't find my way out of it. It was I just think about. Maybe it's like this big dark hole and I'm on the, I'm on the bottom and I can't find my way out and I can't find different parts of this bottom that are that are awful, awful.

Tyler Brown: 22:25

I didn't even know it. I don't think I, I think, I, I think I knew it, but I didn't, I didn't realize the extent of the brokenness I was or the the darkness or the. Yeah, just didn't realize how deep I was, probably, but I was down there pretty far.

Chris Grainger: 22:44

Well you talked about when you first started there were some sexual abuse and I'm sure this Well you talked about when you first started there were some sexual abuse and I'm sure this is. You know lots of guys experienced this, but not many of them. You know that the stats out there are pretty, I guess, controversial because there's so many guys who have experienced, you know, sexual abuse but they don't report it because they feel like, you know, it's something they just need to just push through and not worry about. I mean, kind of speak to the guy listening right now who may have had experienced some of that. What encouragement would you tell them? Or how does that relate to your story?

Tyler Brown: 23:18

Dang man, I was 16 years old, I was asleep, I was high, I was, I was asleep, I was high, I was vulnerable and it happened and my whole. My whole response to that was to take the blame, to say, man, I, I did something wrong I could have, I could have stopped this. I wanted and man, that's that that 16 year year old boy. He didn't have, he didn't have the power over a, over an older man who was doing awful things and so my, I couldn't do anything about it and I had to.

Tyler Brown: 24:05

I had to accept that it happened to me and stop fighting so hard to try to pretend that I had power over it. I had to submit to this reality. Man, this awful thing has happened and I'm broken about it, I'm disgusted about it, I'm sad about it, I'm angry about it, I'm I'm disgusted about it.

Chris Grainger: 24:29

I'm sad about it.

Tyler Brown: 24:29

I'm angry about it. I'm passionate for it not to happen anymore. But I have to go back and remind that 16 year old little boy sometimes like right, you didn't do anything wrong. You, you're worthy, you're, you're a child of God. This is, this is awful that this happened to you, and God's with you. God's going to walk with you. God's going to bring you healing. God is going to help you overcome this and give you everything you need to walk this journey of healing. So in my own strength I can't overcome it, but God has given me a supernatural power by the Holy Spirit to have wisdom, to be with me in it.

Tyler Brown: 25:15

Awful things happen. Awful things might happen again in the future to me. I can't deceive myself into this pseudo power that nothing bad is ever going to happen to me, but I can trust that there is a power who conquered death and he's with me and he'll help me overcome, even in the midst of hard things. And so man, I don't know I there's still a lot of healing that's happening in that journey to overcome.

Chris Grainger: 25:44

But yeah, is that? Does that look like you know counseling or you know working with therapists? I mean, what does that look like you know counseling or you know working with therapists? I mean, what does that look like for you from the healing standpoint?

Tyler Brown: 25:53

yeah, that um, I'm working with a therapist, I'm working with uh counselors and they're helping me reprocess the uh, the it was there were. There were multiple occasions for me and my story. So the complex trauma and PTSD, all that stuff's real. Physiologically it's hard to navigate sometimes to help through um like uh meditating, walking, uh exercising, um walking with, walking with the counselors and the therapies to help, and so some of these tools have been helpful for that healing.

Tyler Brown: 26:40

Well, that's great. So we pray, we fast and we trust God to to keep, keep walking with us through it.

Chris Grainger: 26:46

Amen to that brother, amen. Well, I mean kind of get to the point. Now I'd love to pick your brain a little bit about. You know, when you went to this conference with your future wife, you said she gave you a Bible and a highlighter. So it sounds like she was definitely an encouragement to your journey. Also very curious what are? What types of men did you have coming alongside you at that point that were helping disciple you, and did you have trust issues based off of your past? Man, I mean just letting guys get close to you.

Tyler Brown: 27:20

Totally, I still have trust issues.

Tyler Brown: 27:22

I'm sure, and that's real and that's raw. I think I used to pretend, you know, nothing's wrong with me. I've got it all figured out, I'm completely healed, god's good and in a lot of ways those things are true and powerful and I can walk on some of those things. At the same time, there's things that are broken within me that are still being healed and will likely not experience full healing until heaven comes or when Jesus returns. And so I pray now often for healing, but also for perseverance and for God to help me trust others and get close to others, especially in the church, because the church is the place of healing.

Tyler Brown: 28:11

When we experience things, especially things through relationship, where, hey, man, this person hurt me, or something like that, then we develop these defenses to isolate or to protect ourselves or to guard ourselves from our relationships. But God's in the business of breaking that stuff down and helping us come back into relationships with others, because that's what we were made for. And when we can come into those relationships we experience healing because these past relationships, they hurt us right, and so we learn how to navigate in those hurt relationships Right. Jesus comes and he brings a full and right relationship and then puts us in relationship with the body of Christ and we experience these new relationships where there's grace and there's truth and there's forgiveness and we start to experience healing and trust again, where we can begin to trust people. Through this, you know new, new relationships.

Chris Grainger: 29:13

A hundred percent. So a couple of things, and I think it's worth addressing this. You said the church is the hospital and that's while. I fully agree with that, many churches, particularly in the South where we live, they tend to be more country club than hospital. And so maybe speak to a guy who's tried to go to a church and he felt like he didn't fit in, like he couldn't be his real authentic self with these these hurt issues, because he needed to be blessed and highly favored. Everything was good, right.

Tyler Brown: 29:46

Yeah Gosh, that's hard man. Um gosh, you want to tell the guy to take take a chance, right, but then he's like I've taken chances and this, this stuff is, uh, is not what it's cracked up to be. These men, these men, are just like the world. They're um or I don't, yeah, I don't fit in here, or um being condemned.

Chris Grainger: 30:14

You know, condemnation judgment yeah, what about?

Tyler Brown: 30:19

um, take a chance on god. And um, for me it was, it was prayer. It was prayer, it was the Holy spirit, it was the word of God. And um it was, it was trusting him to bring me into the right relationships. And uh, man, I've experienced some of those, those uh, not so good relationships. Um, and gosh, man, I don't know you. You talk to me, tell me I've been there, what? What would you say to me if I'm thinking, gosh, this is, these men have hurt me before in the past and I can't um.

Chris Grainger: 31:03

I try to tell guys, you know, first of all, we're looking for lions, not house cats, and I think there's lots of house cats out there in church that don't want to actually be, you know, be a disciple. So if you're trying to find that healing, you got to lean in yourself and be and be willing to be vulnerable and be open. But if you've, you know, if you've been hurt you've heard, you hear people talk about church hurt, right, and you know. But you know what? I've been hurt at a hospital before too. So if I get injured, I'm going back to the hospital. So you can't just stop. So maybe you do need to make an adjustment, but this is why I'm really big on discipleship and trying to.

Chris Grainger: 31:45

Obviously, you need to have a pastor that's preaching the gospel, for sure, but you got to find some guys that are willing to come alongside of you and help you in your discipleship journey. And that's that, I think, has been the struggle for lots of churches. And just trying to, I feel like we want to get them to the point of getting them into the baptism water and then after that it's kind of like good luck. And now we're trying to find the next ones we're trying to get into the water versus walking with them on their discipleship journey. I feel like that's a big gap and that's one reason why I started this podcast and our community and I think guys just they need that. That's why I was curious about the types of guys you had in your life Once you had that the iron sharpening iron guys, not the yes men, you know that were that will help you stay accountable.

Tyler Brown: 32:37

Oh man, that's really good. Uh and I, I agree with that. That's where I've found the most. The most healing is through those relationships, those relationships with some men, um, so I didn't find it on the Sunday morning sermon, although those things are great and hugely beneficial and shaping in my life. But potentially even more powerful are those small groups of disciples, men who are vulnerable, and there's some guys in my life now that um and I'm still working to to ask God, god bring, bring these men into my life to help shape me and um, and help me be a man who, who helps others, you know as well.

Tyler Brown: 33:22

Sometimes that just takes uh, um, somebody being willing to go first and say, hey, man, we're going to get together in a small group and we're going to be men, and this is what it looks like to be a man. The greatest man who ever walked was Jesus Christ and he sat with a small group of disciples and he was vulnerable and he was humble and he hurt out loud. He said, man, I don't want to go to the cross right now. It hurts so bad. You know, I'm sweating blood and but to be able to do that openly with a small group of men is is a good place to good place to go 100%.

Chris Grainger: 34:03

I mean, I had a pastor tell me this yesterday, tyler, he was like you know, christ had his apostles, his disciples, and they were with him. But within that group you had the trio Peter, james and John. Right, he's like, and sometimes you need to think about who are your core, and he says in his experience you can only have three to five truly core guys in your life. But you got to really start, you know, leaning into that and and I found the older it gets, the harder. That gets you know and and I don't know about maybe speak to you, do you? What does your core look like? Obviously we have there's guys that we want to speak into our life, mentoring us and helping us grow. But it was that core group look, look like for you.

Tyler Brown: 34:47

Yeah, man, I'm in relationship with a lot of people based off the nature of what I do as a missionary. That takes me to many different places across North America. So I have to learn to spend the right time with the right people, and that's not always an easy discernment, but I trust the Lord to lead me in that, with the right people. And that's not always an easy discernment, but I trust the Lord to lead me in that. And my core, I'd say, right now is probably my kids. I got three boys, seven, five and one and a half and my wife. That's got to be a priority for me, where I love my wife, love my kids more than um, more than anybody.

Tyler Brown: 35:29

And it's been the, the quality time with them, that that, um, that they need and that I need to my family. And then, beyond that, I um, I have, uh, I have some older men who I meet with on a regular basis, Um, and then we have some older couples that me and my wife will meet with as well.

Chris Grainger: 35:52

Okay.

Tyler Brown: 35:53

And um, and then I pour, I try to pour into guys that, um, that a lot of the ways that I pour into guys as I say, hey, come with me, I'm going over here to. Um, I'm going to Houston, you want to ride with me? Or I'm going over here to. I'm going to Houston, you want to ride with me. Or I'm going to LA, you want to ride with me, and we just get that that. I think people used to call it boat time, where Jesus got time in the boat with with his disciple. We're at airplane time now. That's right. We get time in the car together. We get time in the airplane together. That's right. We get time in the car together, we get time in the airplane together. And these guys that I run with they're bearing more fruit in the kingdom than I am at this point, so I praise God for that.

Chris Grainger: 36:37

Amen, Amen. Hey guys, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. I find it helps me to have a guide at times when I'm reading and studying the Bible. One way that helps me is by using devotionals to guide not only what I read, but insights into the scriptures themselves. So we were blessed to become an author on the YouVersion Bible app and we saw an immediate opportunity to help others with devotionals around the areas that we spend the most time talking about at the Lion Within Us. So if you enjoy the show, you may enjoy these devos as well.

Chris Grainger: 37:16

We have some guys that are using them as part of their small groups as well, as they're a great way to get conversations going. So to see the ones that we've created, head over to the lionwithinus slash you version, and that's Y-O-U-V-E-R-S-I-O-N to learn more. So that's the lionwithinus slash you version, to get started with your own men's devotional today. So, Tyler man, talk to us about the work you're doing as a missionary. What does that look like? I mean kind of give the guys. Obviously it's been a full circle moment for you, from where you are to where you are now. But yeah, how are you serving the kingdom man? What does that look like for you?

Tyler Brown: 38:01

There's some stories in the gospel that really grabbed my attention. There's a demoniac man in Mark, chapter 5, and he meets Jesus. He's delivered from a legion of demons and he's in his right mind.

Tyler Brown: 38:17

He wants to be with Jesus. And Jesus says hey, go tell everybody in the city about me and how I've had mercy on you. So Jesus raises this demoniac man up who was out of his mind. He puts him in his right mind and he says this is what it looks like to be a man of God. Go tell others about me. And there's some other stories like that too. Zacchaeus is one. Zacchaeus is climbing a tree to look at where is this Jesus? And Jesus says come down from the tree, I'm going to stay at your house. And Jesus stays with Zacchaeus and his household and begins to teach him how to be a man.

Tyler Brown: 38:59

A man of God is one who gives generously, even back to those you've heard before in the past. So these kind of stories really stick out to me and I think about how Jesus came. Jesus, the man of God, the God man himself, walked with an authority and cast out demons and healed the sick and called people to follow him. And so I try to look at these examples and think, man, I want to be a man of God now and I want to walk in this way. And so I want to walk like Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and look for guys like the demoniac, for those guys who are in the bottom of the pit and say, man, jesus can set you free, jesus can heal you. Come and let's walk together and follow him together in discipleship. And I look for the guys like Zacchaeus. Often those Zacchaeus guys are in the church building and they're looking. They're like where's Jesus? Unfortunately, sometimes it's hard to find Jesus in the church building, like you were talking about, but they're there and God's going to find those guys. So I'm on a hunt for them, saying, hey, where's? The Zacchaeuses at that are looking for Jesus. I want to help you, I want to follow Jesus together with you in discipleship. So I'm looking for the demoniacs, I'm looking for the Zacchaeuses and the way that I do that, and I take people with me. I walk together with a missionary team and sometimes, um, those demoniacs are in the harvest fields, like at marketplaces or at the bar, um, and I'm looking for them by hanging out and saying, man, I'm tyler, I love jesus, I pray for people. I try to get a reputation as the Christian in the city. Then I visit the churches and say, hey, I'm Tyler, god's changed me, and there's people in this church that God's changed too and we want to help them in discipleship. And so we do a lot of training for churches how to how to disciple men and and uh, and women, and so that's kind of my job. I go, uh. A real clear picture would be um.

Tyler Brown: 41:21

I met a guy at Jiffy Lube, um, recently and he. I told him I said, hey, I love Jesus, I want to pray for you, and he said, oh, that's great. So we started working out together, we went to the gym together, we became friends. This was a rough dude man. He probably wouldn't have ended up in the church, but we ended up hanging out, opened up a Bible study in his living room On the second week. He said I want to repent and believe in jesus. What's that look like?

Tyler Brown: 41:53

and it looks like um turning, um turning and following jesus and not putting your hope in some of these worldly things anymore, but putting down your defenses and picking up jesus and picking up the cross as your defense, and being filled with the Holy Spirit and having a new life where God begins to transform you into a man of God. And he was like I think I want to do that. Help me, help me do that. So we just started meeting on a weekly basis in his living room and next thing, you know, his wife started following Jesus and a couple of his co-workers started following Jesus and we of his coworkers started following Jesus and we're just disciple, discipleship in the living room and seeing these men become leaders and multiply and become those who disciple others as well. And so that's a quick story about what, what my my day to day looks like going to share the gospel and disciple others and multiply.

Chris Grainger: 42:53

Good for you, man. That sounds absolutely incredible. I mean, what an impact you're making. So are you partnering with local churches across the country? Is that usually where you fly to, like you said, Houston or LA? Is that where you're going to work with a church directly there?

Tyler Brown: 43:08

Yeah, usually we're working with churches. Right now we're working with churches. Right now we're working with a Vietnamese network of churches and helping them to multiply across DC and some other major cities across the US.

Chris Grainger: 43:22

Okay, I got you, so I guess you land, go there and then work with their teams. Yep, correct. Okay, got it. Man, that's incredible. Yeah, how long have you been doing that?

Tyler Brown: 43:38

2007, 2016.

Chris Grainger: 43:40

Okay.

Tyler Brown: 43:41

Several years.

Chris Grainger: 43:42

Yeah, now, I'm sure that's a lot of travel. Do you think you'll continue down that path with these little ones that you got running around? Man, that's a lot of travel. Do you think you'll continue down that path with these little?

Tyler Brown: 43:50

ones that you got running around. Man? That's a great question. I try to limit the travel as much as I can to pour into these guys, and the good thing about having people you know teammates and coworkers come with me is I can release some of those trips to others, right.

Chris Grainger: 44:09

Well, good for you, buddy, Good. So Well, good for you, buddy, good for you. Well, man, what a powerful story. I mean, tyler, this has been great. Before we wrap up, though, let's play a lightning round here at the end, just to let the guys know a little bit about you before, uh, before we, before we call it a day. Okay, so start us off with something simple what do you enjoy doing for fun? Do you have any hobbies that you still do?

Tyler Brown: 44:31

Yeah, I like to golf. It's a love-hate relationship though.

Chris Grainger: 44:36

I didn't know. Sometimes baseball players, it can be tough to get that golf swing down right.

Tyler Brown: 44:41

Yeah, just taking whacks of the golf balls. That's what I like to do.

Chris Grainger: 44:45

I hear you, buddy, I hear you. What's your favorite? Food Ooh dang you're going to judge me.

Tyler Brown: 44:51

The first thing that came to my mind was pizza and spaghetti and stuff like that there you go All the good stuff, man I hear you, I hear you.

Chris Grainger: 44:59

What about all-time favorite movie man?

Tyler Brown: 45:02

Ooh dang. I don't know why Titanic came to my mind. That's not a favorite movie. Movie that just came to my mind is one of the first movies I watched in theaters all right.

Chris Grainger: 45:12

So this is weird, okay, and you're not gonna know why, but I won't tell you why so I interviewed a pastor yesterday. It was a great interview and he that was his no way yes, and I was like pastor brian come on now Titanic. He's like look Chris this is how it worked.

Chris Grainger: 45:33

I went with his wife they were dating when it came out and they went to see it like 10 times. He waited for it. When it came out on VHS or whatever or maybe it was DVD he went to the store and waited for it to come out that night. I'm like, all right, you definitely are a Titanic fan. The fact that you brought it up I had like this. Oh really, that was crazy.

Tyler Brown: 46:04

I was just playing whatever first thing comes to my mind. Maybe my actual favorite movie would probably be the Sandlot or something like that there you go, man, killing me smalls, that's it.

Chris Grainger: 46:13

That's it. That's good stuff, man, that's good stuff. Well, what about, uh, any habits, what? Any habits that you have that this could be not spiritual, it could just be physical or or mental, but any habits that you enjoy that you think other guys may try.

Tyler Brown: 46:30

Man. I think going for walks, going for hikes, yeah, there's something really healthy about these long walks and just being with the Lord and being physically healthy. So I like to work out. I do a little online workout with a system, so staying physically active is good.

Chris Grainger: 46:54

You working out at home.

Tyler Brown: 46:55

Yep.

Chris Grainger: 46:58

Lots of home gyms out there, for sure. What about superpower? If you could have any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?

Tyler Brown: 47:06

Dang, maybe teleportation. That would save a lot on airplane travels, that's right.

Chris Grainger: 47:13

That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, if you could just teleport, that would be awesome. How about? What did you spend too much time doing last year?

Tyler Brown: 47:23

Ooh, too much time doing.

Chris Grainger: 47:26

Mm-hmm.

Tyler Brown: 47:27

Dang.

Chris Grainger: 47:52

Gosh, I don't know if I got an answer to that one. I feel like last year was a good year.

Tyler Brown: 47:54

Maybe I spent too much time working. Sometimes I get caught up in my and don't spend quite enough time with my family. So there you go. That's fair, that's real man. What about about when you think about god? What's your favorite thing about him? God, he's so, um, I was gonna say, complex. I don't know if that's communicates the right way, but there's so many facets of god, from his absolute power and authority to his unending gentleness and patience, and so maybe my favorite part about God is the almost like paradox of his being. Like he can be so far beyond us but right here at the center, amen.

Tyler Brown: 48:29

He can be so just, um, and yet so merciful and so yeah, so I think something about the peculiar glory of the multi-faceted nature of god love it, man, love it.

Chris Grainger: 48:44

Let's flip it 180. Least favorite thing about the evil one Ooh, he's tricky.

Tyler Brown: 48:51

He's a deceiver. He'll deceive you and you won't even know you're being deceived sometimes.

Chris Grainger: 48:59

Yeah, that deception's tough man. Well, last question for you, tyler, in the lightning round, is what do you hope the guys listening remember the most from our conversation today?

Tyler Brown: 49:15

um, um man, I hope that they'll remember, even if they find themselves in that dark place sometimes and hey, listen, sometimes we get in those dark places still as as men of God, right at the bottom of these, these pits. But, um, man, I I remember some of the places I was and I'm thankful I'm not there anymore, but I still have hard, hard days. Um, I think I want the guys to remember if're there, there's hope, there's healing. Sometimes that healing will come automatically. In my story, you may remember, it came pretty powerfully at some points, but also it's continuing to come through this life of perseverance as well. So it's coming. Sometimes it happens in a moment, but sometimes it happens over the course of a long season of persevering through the hard times. So I hope you remember the healing will come, whether it comes right now or over the course of a long season.

Chris Grainger: 50:29

God's faithful God will bring the healing and help you out, no matter where you go. Amen, brother. Amen. Well, tyler, where do you want the guys to go to connect with you to your story? The things that you're doing? Just point them wherever you like, sir.

Tyler Brown: 50:45

You can check me out on Instagram. It's me Tyler Brown. Okay, All right there you Instagram.

Chris Grainger: 50:51

It's me Tyler Brown. Okay, all right, there you go. That's where you're the most active at.

Tyler Brown: 50:55

Well, that's where, yeah, you're probably getting in touch with me the easiest.

Chris Grainger: 50:58

Okay, and then your story on I Am Second Totally. We'll have the link there in the show notes for you guys as well.

Tyler Brown: 51:05

Okay.

Chris Grainger: 51:05

All right, well, tyler, anything else you'd like to share with us today?

Tyler Brown: 51:09

Man. No, thank you, man for having me on. This was awesome.

Chris Grainger: 51:13

Absolutely buddy. Well, you have a wonderful day. Thanks for coming on the line with Dennis.

Tyler Brown: 51:17

All right, you too.

Chris Grainger: 51:21

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Chris Grainger: 52:40

All right, guys, I told you that was going to be a good one, so hopefully you enjoyed that, looking forward to hearing what you guys think about it, and the question I want you to think about this week is what is your message of hope to others. Now, you just heard Tyler's powerful story for sure, but you have a message too. We all have a story, we all have a testimony. How are we going to use that testimony to point others to the hope that you have in Christ? What are you doing intentionally to take that step, to point them to him? When you start living that way, it starts changing who you are, man. It's such a big deal. It's just going to be. It's going to impact you in ways you never imagined. So hopefully you enjoy this conversation, guys. Hopefully this is one again.

Chris Grainger: 53:26

If you know someone who's dealing with addiction or struggling in this area, share it out there. You never know how just that little step of obedience could be a light for them or a little encouragement for them along their path. So head over to thelionwithinus. That's thelionwithinus. Connect with our resources, our devotionals, our Bible studies guides. We have our community, where I want you to take your opportunity to join us inside our community, because if you're struggling with isolation, uh, depression, loneliness, and you're just looking for a band of brothers that you need to be able to speak to and connect with, this is why we have our community. It is out there for a reason and it's impacting guys each and every day. If you want to help, if you don't help with your marriage, if you want to help with your relationships, guys, we have all these types of guys that are inside of our community, that are ready to serve.

Chris Grainger: 54:18

Now, if you're trying to amp up your business and try to make more ethical business decisions as a Christian business leader, our Summit Leadership Development is where it's at. This is where we're going to really get tactical brass tacks and let let's get into how we can help you move the ball down the field. All right, so again, give us a rating and review. That would be huge if you would take the time to do that. And alignwithinus that's where you connect with us, get all our resources and we go from there.

Chris Grainger: 54:45

So come back on Friday. We'll have some fun Friday tips for you guys. You know we have a lot of fun on Fridays anyway, looking forward to seeing you. Good Lord willing, and just thank you again. So much for the support. If you want to be a monthly donor, that would be just a phenomenal way to support what we're doing. You can go to thelionwithinus slash, donate and connect with us right there, and it would mean the world to us just to have your support, as we do all we can each and every day to help you be the leader God intends you to be. So get after it, stay strong and remember. Keep on reaching the lion within.