Chris Grainger: 1:01

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 Granger. Let's jump in. All right, guys, spiritual kickoff time. Let's get into it, okay? So the scripture for this week is Galatians, chapter 6, verse 10. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Guys, this is going to be a go.

Chris Grainger: 1:29

I'm so looking forward to unpacking this scripture, because the whole idea of the spiritual kickoff probably the most excited I get every week is doing the SKOs is giving you ideas on how to simplify and apply this scripture to your life, and we do this with simple reflections, that's it. Reflections on what this means to me, hopefully, what it can encourage you with as well. And as we get into it, we need to know. First of all, we need to know our Bible. So where is Galatians? Well, it's in your New Testament, after 2 Corinthians, before you get to Ephesians. So it's one of those letters right there. It's not very long, so that's where you're going to have to find it, after 2 Corinthians.

Chris Grainger: 2:08

All right Now for this verse specifically, paul is issuing a call for us, as believers, to engage in active and here's a very important word intentional, living Intentional. Here's a very important word intentional, living Intentional. So it's kind of like a rally cry for us to get off the doggone bench and get into the game, and that's kind of what we're talking about this week. Okay, so every breath that God gives us is proof to us or at least it should be doggone it that he has purpose for us, and too often we start disqualifying ourselves with action and we start when we do that we let fear or anxiousness, or even failure or fatigue just put us to the side. But I'm here to tell you, scripture's telling us right here, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone. Hey, we need to do this, we need to take this lean in and make it happen.

Chris Grainger: 3:08

All right Now, let's start, let's think about this, from the call to action that Paul's given us. He's kind of given us two frameworks to think about, two groups. You got everyone in the household of the faith. As believers, we're called to be lights in the world. We should know that. We're called to be the light, give love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control the fruit of the Spirit. We should be pouring that out. However, there is a special, special emphasis that Paul's giving us here on building up fellow believers, because we are a family united by Christ and we should be carrying each other's burdens and sharing them and strengthening each other in faith.

Chris Grainger: 3:50

And when we want to actually lean in and start doing what God's called us to do, we need to recognize this is a dual mission right here. We're not just waiting for the perfect moment to do some good act of service. No, it's about recognizing every day God's given us opportunities before us to uplift and bless those all around us. And if we recognize to be true that opportunities are literally everywhere, paul says as we have opportunity, look, he's putting us before us every day, all the time. How often do we overlook him? Let's just be real. We just do Because maybe we're too distracted by our own struggles right? Or consumed with our own feelings of inadequacy. Truth is fellas. Here's something I recognize to be true to more and more trips I get around the sun. And I recognize to be true to more and more trips I get around the sun. You don't have to have a title or a platform or perfect circumstance to make a difference.

Chris Grainger: 4:51

The simple act of just showing some kindness and a smile to someone, or taking them by the hand and praying, or actually pulling out a pen and a piece of paper and writing a note of encouragement, that can have more of an impact on someone's day and their life than anything that you can maybe try to manufacture on your own, because each moment, each thing that God has given us right here is a chance to glorify God, and what you're doing by glorifying him is you're reflecting his love onto others, and God's not done with you. So you have people in your life today that you need to bless and he needs you to do it. He wants you to speak the words, not send the text. Maybe sometimes send the text I don't know I'm going to pick on text messages, but sometimes folks just need to hear the words, not send the text. Maybe sometimes send the text. I'm not going to pick on text messages, but sometimes folks just need to hear the words, and I'm just here to tell you. He's given you an opportunity, and this encouragement in this verse right here, paul's challenge to do good for us, indicates more than just physical acts. We're talking about encouragement Because there's so many people out there in a world that is negative after negative after negative, despair, despair, despair.

Chris Grainger: 6:13

Encouragement is rare, yo, it's just rare, it just doesn't even. It's something we don't even think about this very much. I mean, hebrews tells us to you know, consider us, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another, because the day is drawing near, fellas, it's coming. And look, here's reality. I coined this term a while back. Chief encouragement officer, that's you. You have the chance to be a chief encouragement officer every day in your life to the people that you're around. That doesn't require some you know different type of extraordinary effort either. No, it requires you just to be authentic, humble and intentional, looking for opportunities to speak life into your brothers and sisters in Christ, acknowledging that they're having some struggles, celebrating when they crush it and I mean truly celebrating with them when they crush it and reminding them of God's faithfulness, because your words may just be what they need to get them back in the game.

Chris Grainger: 7:20

And here's what happens for this episode. I want to share this. Here's what happens when you decide not to. When you decide not to, you're robbing others of the blessing that God has planned for their life. You rob and then you also rob yourself of the joy that comes from taking those steps of obedience, because sitting on the bench and getting out of the game, that's isolation, self-doubt and just being stagnant. That's not what we're supposed to do.

Chris Grainger: 7:55

Think about Moses. He doubled down. He doubted his ability to lead. Or Gideon, the least of the least right. God didn't call them boys because they themselves were qualified. He called them because he was equipping them. He knew that when he called them, he was calling them for something great. And the same is true for you.

Chris Grainger: 8:20

So whatever excuses that you have going on in your life right now you're too busy, you're too fearful or I'm just not good enough lay that crap down, get it out. He doesn't need your perfection, he just needs your willingness, boys. So start praying for those opportunities every day. Lord, show me. And then look for people today. Encourage someone. That's your challenge. If you don't get anything out of this message, encourage someone today with words. With words. Serve with purpose. Look for opportunities and then actually go serve that. Fulfill it. Stay connected. You're going to have some brothers and sisters in Christ as you do this, because you're going to need some time for people to be pouring into you. And, whatever you do, reflect Christ's love, because whatever you're doing, those random acts of kindness which are great, it's not about you, it's about pointing them to Him.

Chris Grainger: 9:19

See and finish strong, boys. Finish strong, because you're supposed to be living your life. Hopefully, purpose and urgency and opportunities are going to come and go. You don't have a choice to make. Are you going to lean into them or not? In Galatians this is a beautiful verse, right here Let no good deed be undone, no word of encouragement unsaid and no opportunity unseized. So it's time to get off the bench, boys, because the game of life ain't over. There's still work to be done. I don't care if you are five years old or 105 years old. There's still work to be done. Lean into God's strength, speak that life into others, and it's time to be the leader he's called us, to be Alright now. I want you to think about this question, though. Are you ready to get off the bench? You have to be ready and then, once you are time, to take some action.

Chris Grainger: 10:16

Now, if you listen to the Spiritual Kickoff episodes. First of all, we do these every day, monday through Friday, in our community. But you also recognize, on SKO. I take this every week as an opportunity for those who are listening to just make sure that we understand who we're following and why. We have a whole statement of faith. That's inionWithInus. You can go check out TheLionWithInus and you can see what we believe but also recognize to be true about all the people who listen to the show.

Chris Grainger: 10:46

Not all of them are believers. Sometimes, let's just face it, the bulk majority are. But sometimes there are people who are listening who aren't believers and they're just curious. They want to see what this is all about. And I just want to say, if that's you, thank you for listening to the show.

Chris Grainger: 11:01

And I just want to share some good news with you because it's the best news that ever happened to me in my life. No-transcript, I have to. I feel this burden to share it with you because I love you and I care enough about you to speak truth to you. And the first thing I need you to know is that you're made in God's image. You're so wonderfully made and you don't even know it Most of us don't but we're made in his image and God. He spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke all the things into being until he came to man, where he formed man with his hands and he breathed the breath of life into Adam. And when Adam set up, he was face to face with his creator and it was awesome. I mean, it was awesome. He was in the garden, everything was beautiful. He's with God, doing what God's called him to do. That's who you are. You're made in the image of God. You're not defined by your divorce or your things that you look at on the Internet or the bad decisions you made with your money. No, no, no, no. That doesn't define you. You are a child of God.

Chris Grainger: 12:08

Now there is an issue that we all have, and there's this little thing called sin. That's not little, I'm just joking, but sin is anything that separates us from God. So in the garden, they sin. There was a rebellion against God, and then that created this void, this gap between a holy and righteous God and sin for us. Okay, and that's every single one of us.

Chris Grainger: 12:34

We all fall short of God's glory. So what you may be thinking is well, I'm not that bad, chris. Like you know, my teacher said in school I was pretty cool, like you know, some of them even call me cupcakes and snowflakes and Skittles and like I'm really not that bad a person Like look, bro, you're comparing it to the wrong thing. You're comparing it to the wrong thing. Compared to your neighbor, you may be okay. Compared to a holy and righteous God, you just fall short, bro. You just do Guess what. So do I, so does everyone else on the planet.

Chris Grainger: 13:01

We all fall short of the glory of God. So recognize that there's a gap between a holy and righteous God and us and we can't fulfill it. You can't be a nice person, you can't go to church and spend money and all this stuff. Right, give the charities all this stuff, volunteer. Some of those things are inherently good. They're just not earning your salvation. Because if you try to earn your salvation, that's called works-based righteousness and there's no such thing you can't do it. So there's a penalty for this, for sin, and the penalty, the wage of sin, is death. So we recognize that death is a reality. So there's nothing we can do to pay for it on our own.

Chris Grainger: 13:41

What do we do then? How in the world do we overcome this? Well, first thing, we can't. We need someone to step in and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. We don't need a coach, we need a savior. See the difference. And because we need a Savior, who is that going to be?

Chris Grainger: 14:01

In comes Jesus, who came from heaven on a rescue mission for you, for me, for the entire world. Born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the teachings, the miracles, all the wonderful things that Christ did. Go, check out the Gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John. If you're new to the Bible, that's how you can go straight to the Bible. Go to the New Testament Matthew, mark, luke and John. You can read all about Jesus, about his ministry when he was here on earth. And then in those Gospels you're going to see where Jesus goes to the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. So that payment, that gap that you had I was just talking about Jesus is like you know what? I'm going to pay it for him. I'm going to do it.

Chris Grainger: 14:47

And that penalty was death. So they put him on a cross, they crucified him, and the Savior of the world, our Messiah, died for you, for me, for everyone. Jesus paid it. All His perfect blood ran and at that moment he paid the penalty that we couldn't pay. Then they took him off the tomb off the cross, sorry and laid him in a tomb.

Chris Grainger: 15:17

But that was more like an Airbnb for Jesus. He just needed it for three days. Then he came out, because we don't worship a dead guy. It makes no sense to worship someone that's dead. No, we worship the living Savior. So after three days he overcame death, he rose and this is who we have, this is who we put our hope in, this is who we put our hope in, this is who we put our trust in, this is who we believe in, because through him comes eternal life, trusting in him, confessing him as Lord and Savior of our life.

Chris Grainger: 15:45

And Jesus just lays down that. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. There's no other name under heaven that's given among men by which we must be saved. It is Jesus. He is the only way. So we have to recognize if he's the only way. What do we have to do? How do we get this awesome gift?

Chris Grainger: 16:05

And it starts with just a minute understanding that, hey, I get it. I'm a sinner and I got a lot of things going on that I can't fix myself and I need you Recognition of a need. You got to believe in something. Believe and actually repent and turn from and believe in something that should be Jesus. Believe in him as Savior and confess him as Lord. And I mean Lord of your life, not just Lord over Sunday, no, lord of your life All the time, your money, your career, your marriage, your children, your community, your home, everything, everything. He has to be Lord over it all. And when you confess that to him, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells, you'll have a new heart, the scales come and fall off and you'll be walking with Him and you'll have the chance to listen to the Holy Spirit and you'll also have the chance to obey the Holy Spirit.

Chris Grainger: 17:04

So if you're listening right now and you're not sure if you've ever surrendered your life to the Lordship of Christ and you know you need to get it done, I'm going to pray for you right now and my prayer is that you take this time to confess Him as Lord and just turn, repent and go straight into His arms. So let's pray, lord, just. Thank you so much for today. We love you, we praise you. You're so thankful. That's just chance each and every week on the line within us to share your word, to share the good news of the gospel. I pray there's just someone listening who feels a little encouraged. And for that one listener who's tried to finally made the decision, lord, to turn their life, confess you as Lord and Savior, I just pray you be with them right now. Put some people in their life that's going to encourage them right now. We know that Eve wants to try to attack and do all the things he does to hold them back, to keep them discouraged, and I just want to pray against that. Father, so thankful for this chance just to share your word today. We love you, we praise you and I pray that we can just keep honoring and glorifying you here at the Lion. We pray all this according to your will in Jesus' name. Amen, all right, so if you just accepted Christ, look, I need to hear from you, okay, because I got some stuff I need to equip you with. I need to get you ready.

Chris Grainger: 18:26

Chris at thelionwithinus, send me an email. Let me know which episode it was that you actually confessed Christ on for this episode. Please let me know, then I will send you some resources. We have a Bible study. We have some free, some PDFs. I want to equip you. I want to do all I can to get you ready. Okay, because you're in a battle now. You're in a battle, but you're not alone. You're not alone, you're not alone. So, chris, at the Lionel10.us, Okay, so, guys, I want you to come back on Wednesday. We'll have a really good episode.

Chris Grainger: 18:58

The conversation with the gentleman was phenomenal. You're going to like it, I guarantee you, particularly if you guys who have sons or daughters basically, if you check the dad box, I'm telling you it's going to be a great one. If you don't, maybe that season of life has passed. It's not. It's not passed based off the thing that we're going to be talking about. So I highly encourage you to come check it out.

Chris Grainger: 19:19

Okay, then head over to thelionwithinus. Check all our resources. Lots and lots of ways, from our weekly roar fellas to our discipleship masterminds, lion Lunches, friday Forges. Guys, we have stuff happening all the time at the Lion Within Us. Go check out our resources, see how it could serve you to grow, be the leader that God intends you to be. So, thank you so much for listening. Give us a rating and review Again, if you want to be a donor to show you can go to thelionwithinus slash, donate Support right there to help encourage us to keep building what we feel like God is calling us to do. And, quite simply, we disciple leaders. If you need some discipleship, and you know you do the lion withinus is how you get started. All right, guys, have a great day. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time. Keep unleashing the lion within, lion Within.

Chris Grainger: 20:18

I don't know about you, but I used to find Mondays really rough.

Chris Grainger: 20:19

I would find myself trying to reset for work, trying to get my bearing on the family calendar, trying to find time for my own spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself overwhelmed or just flatly ignoring aspects of my life that I know are meaningful to me.

Chris Grainger: 20:35

What I learned was that if I had immediate access to important and impactful spiritual topics and reflections to start my week well after the allure of a Sunday sermon has passed, I would set my whole week up to be more meaningful and for the opportunity to make a true impact. If you think that getting such a boost would help your week to get started on the right foot, we would love for you to sign up for the Weekly Roar, which is our newsletter that is produced by the Lion Within Us Each week, will deliver a powerful reflection and practical steps to help you apply scripture with clarity and purpose, all being rooted in light and truth. So in just a few minutes, we hope to arm you with insights for living out biblical leadership with confidence and strength, and maybe even have a little extra bounce in your step. If that sounds useful, head over to thelionwithinus slash ROAR to sign up today. That's thelionwithinus slash ROAR to get your weekly ROAR today.