Chris Grainger: 1:10

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, fellas, it's fun Friday time. I'm excited to be here with you. Let's get going, okay? So Scripture of the Week.

Chris Grainger: 1:23

We've talked about it in the first two episodes this week, but 1 Corinthians 15, verse 14 says and if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. Apostle Paul, just man, he has a way of just cutting right to it, doesn't he? But look, go back and listen to the spiritual kickoff episode. I spent a lot of time that's a special SKO, by the way. I spent a lot of time reflecting on 1 Corinthians 15. That's how I typically do it every day within our line, within this community.

Chris Grainger: 1:51

I'd love to know what you think about it, and I'd also love for you to check out the previous episode where I've kind of tried to break down and debunk the differences between Easter and Christmas and why Christmas absolutely destroys Easter, destroys it, and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of Easter just getting slapped. I'm like, bro, this is a big deal. So I'd love to know your thoughts on it too. Like, did you find that that's true for you? Like, is Easter just kind of downplayed? I mean, think about the stuff that you buy for your family. I guarantee you, if you celebrate Christmas at all, you have Christmas decorations, you probably have Christmas ornaments, you probably have Christmas attire like shirts and hats and jackets and whatever it may be right. Think about all your Christmas decorations, just for insight. And then think about outside decorations and lights and all the stuff, the stuff. Most people have an area of their house somewhere for Christmas storage just to store the stuff to celebrate the holiday. Right, what do you have for Easter? Maybe a couple of Easter baskets Very rare, very rare. Does anyone have anything of significance for Easter? Right, I mean, you'll have some candy around that time of year, maybe you'll have a ham and maybe there's certain things you'll do. But notice the stark difference and that's where we spent some time unpacking in the last episode. So look again. All about Resurrection Sunday. Love, love, love. This time of year. This is Good Friday today. Just love the fact that you're listening, that you're wanting to lean in, that you want to grow. But, guys, we have to recognize the importance of this holiday for more than just a chance to consume empty calories. It can't be that it has to be so much more. All right, all right guys. All right guys. So let's keep going, all right.

Chris Grainger: 4:01

So for our new listeners out there for a fun Friday episode, we usually break it down in three ways. We do a health, wealth and a self tip. So those are the three pillars of the line within us. So health being mind and body. So we try wealth and a self-tip. So those are the three pillars of the line within us. So health being mind and body. So we try to give you a tip to strengthen your mind and body. Wealth is really around stewardship, around our finances and our careers. So how do we do that in a way to honor and glorify God? And self-tip is not about you yourself directly, but about the influence you have as a husband and as a father. And what can we do to, you know, to mold that, to sharpen that? All right, so we've got some three tips for each and every week, so let's get to those three for this week.

Chris Grainger: 4:38

So for the health tip, my buddy Lonnie mentioned this to me the other day. He's like man sitting is the new smoking. It's like bro, that's baller, he's like. It's true, you know, and as someone who you know, I do a ton of writing, content creation, videos, all the stuff right that we do at the Lion Within Us, outside of our live events. It's all sitting in this chair, you know. So this is really alive to me and I recognize it to be true.

Chris Grainger: 5:10

Therefore, I have to combat it, and that means for me putting in some time throughout the day for movement, to get moving, for sure, but just to get off my butt, like stand up, Like there could be all sorts of different tips here. Like, for me that means every day a week. I'd go running at our trail every day, six days a week. The only day I don't go is Saturday. I actually skip Saturday. I go Sunday morning before church. I just think it's a great way to get woke up and get ready to go. But get moving.

Chris Grainger: 5:40

Sitting is the new smoking. Just think about how lethargic you can be of, just, you know, sitting at your desk and you're probably working, like me, really hard. Your brain's going, you're burning calories, but you're not actively moving your body. It's going to impact you Get going, right, get up. If anything, like, set some timers to stand up, just get that blood circulating, whatever you have to do. But sitting is the new smoking. You guys know how terrible smoking is for you. Gotta take care of that heart. That means you gotta get active. Alright, wealth tip fellas.

Chris Grainger: 6:14

This time of year, if you go to church particularly on a Baptist church, but other church denominations as well you may hear something called the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, and I just want to let you guys know what that's about. So it's really a Southern Baptist thing, but there's maybe other denominations that look into it. But it's funding missions Okay, it's funding missions and for this time of year Resurrection Sunday and they talk about an Annie Armstrong Easter offering. What you're funding is about 3,000 missionary families serving across the US and Canada. So it's a great mission. So don't have any reserves or questions on this one. This is one that you can. You know they've been vetted. The money is definitely spent in good, good areas.

Chris Grainger: 7:06

So if you have an opportunity or if you're looking for somewhere to give this for this time of year, particularly for uh, for Easter you just want to just be a good steward. Consider that. Go, try to find a church that maybe is taking an Annie Armstrong Easter offering and usually the way those offerings are taken up that goes directly to Annie Armstrong Like the church is basically just a bypass, like just for that, so they're just taking it in and sending it right back out. But it's just a great way to encourage those who are committed their lives to the mission field to support them. So if you ever hear that I just wanted to bring that term up you know, sometimes you're in churches like what is this thing? Like that's what this is all about.

Chris Grainger: 7:45

Okay, all right, now for our self-tip. I said it on Wednesday, I want to say it again Encourage your kids to invite their friends to this coming weekend services. Okay, it's a great venue for explaining and sharing the gospel, and studies show you know they're more statistically inclined to come to church when invited by someone else. Ok, so you're trying to win someone to church and all you do is pray about it and you're not actually inviting them to come with you. You're probably missing the greatest opportunity that you could have, which is actually take that, put it in action. Invite them to come along with you, along with you, okay. So, again, it's just a good tip for us in general to think about.

Chris Grainger: 8:26

Hey, if your kids show any interest and want to be a little evangelist, encourage them. Heck, yeah, I think that's a great idea. You should. You know what you know. Let's call them right now or send them a text message, whatever it may be. Maybe you as the parent have to step in and, you know, ask the other parent for sure you got to have. You know checks and balances there. But also I would encourage us as parents to do this.

Chris Grainger: 8:50

Make it easy for the other parents to say yes to that. How do you do that? You make it easy for them to say yes by offering to take care of the logistics. Like, hey, I know my son or my daughter, they want them to come. They're inviting your child to come with us and we'd love to have them. As a matter of fact, we could even pick them up early that morning. Or, if they'd be interested, they could come and spend the night the night before and don't worry about, we'll bring them home afterwards. Is there anything we can bring? You take all the no's off the table. You know the no's of. You know we don't have time to drive, or you know yada, yada. People can find excuses. Try to find ways to eliminate those no's and then when you have those, your kids friends with you.

Chris Grainger: 9:43

You be intentional as well about sharing the gospel, like you want to expose the gospel to them in several different scenarios, in several different ways, because sometimes, depending on the preacher, maybe the preacher just has a different way of sharing the gospel and it doesn't resonate. You know there's lots of preachers who just have struggle with communication. Maybe you just need to find a simple way here's what God's done for me and just have that conversation in the car or have that conversation for lunch after church, whatever it may be Right, but just take what you can from your abilities to reduce those potentials for saying no and equip your son or your daughter to bring their friends, because you never know how that, just that one little step, a little bit of inconvenience on your end, can have a massively huge impact on them All. Right, so that's our three tips. Guys, we've got our health, wealth and ourselves sitting as a noose smoking, so get your butt up and get moving. Wealth tip that Annie Armstrong Easter offering definitely encourage you to check that out. And a self-tip is encourage your kids and invite their friends to church and then help them to take those no's off the table, all right.

Chris Grainger: 10:47

So our book of the week this week, guys, we do this each and every week. Since we don't have an author this week this actually, you know we interviewed I want to bring this one up. It's by John Owen, the Mortification of Sin. It's a great little book. It's not many pages. What 100-something pages? Yeah, it's about 120 pages. He was a Puritan back in the 1700s. Just a great little study. I'm still working my way through it right now.

Chris Grainger: 11:10

But just around, why is it important that we kill, mortify, sin, right, we have to. Mortification has to be, we have to get it out of our life right, and we do that by surrendering to the Lordship of Christ. So really recognize we need to see sin for what it is and recognize, you know what that's not something we should play with. That takes a whole level of humility to recognize that. We also need to recognize what sin isn't and what mortification is, what mortification isn't, and then, ultimately, the work of Christ and the power of the Spirit. Fellas on what that means for us. So check that. It's just a good little resources. Obviously, you probably heard of some John Owen stuff in the past, but check that one out. We'll have some links out there as well If you're looking to add to your library. For you know, go check out the line with themus slash book. It's a great way to get connected there. All right, All right, guys, let's so.

Chris Grainger: 12:06

Our dad joke number one is I normally don't tell dad jokes, but when I do he laughs. So that's a first one thing. That's pretty good. No-transcript, oh no, because the pee is silent. That's pretty good. So let me know Number one. Number two I normally don't tell dad jokes, but when I do he laughs. Number two why can't you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom? Because the pee is silent.

Chris Grainger: 12:33

Both of those are from our longtime buddy community member friend, doug. Doug jokes that his spiritual gift is dad jokes and I tend to agree. Anytime we're in a meeting with Doug, whether it's the Bible study or couples night, it's always he's got the zingers, he's got the zingers I'm always. If I'm looking for a good pick me up, just hang out with Doug. He's going to put a smile on your face and look, look, doug, he's again a member of our community. He takes part of the different things that we do and it's just a great way again. Fellowship, community discipleship, all the things we're offering gets aligned within us and he's leaned in. So thank you, Doug, for those wonderful, wonderful dad jokes. Brother, you keep them coming and we're going to keep the guys chuckling out there, all right, so our question of the week, this week, guys, has been kind of focused on the empty tune, obviously.

Chris Grainger: 13:26

So it's, what does the empty tune mean to you personally? Again, it has to be your faith, it can't be someone else's. So if it means something to you, what are you going to do about it? All right, so that's been a hopefully a fellow that you've A little bit different format for sure, definitely would love to hear from you Just to see what you think about it. You know I don't know if you like it or not Really super curious on what you thought about the spiritual kickoff format this week.

Chris Grainger: 13:48

Send me a note, send me an email. Definitely would love to hear from you to encourage you. Go check out, jump on the Weekly Roar, if anything, the Weekly Roar is awesome. Assessment it's a free assessment, guys. It's awesome. By the way, when you finish that Christian Leader Assessment on our website, we give tons and tons of free giveaways at the end of it. So you just finish it up, get your results and then, after you get your results, you have access to tons of different resources that we offer up for free. So I'd love for you guys to go check this stuff out.

Chris Grainger: 14:20

Bible app we've already talked about that in other episodes. We go check that out, connect with us on the Bible app. Then our live events We've got our live events. We have our community, we have different ways we serve fellas and all that stuff can be found at thelinewithinus. Alright, so, guys, give us a rating and review. Thank you so much for hanging out. Enjoy your out. Enjoy your resurrection sunday, enjoy your time with family, enjoy the, the acons and all that stuff. Totally for sure. Enjoy all that stuff, right, lean into it. Just remember what it's all about. Okay, all right, guys, have a great one, get after hopefully we'll see you next week and just keep unleashing the lion with it.

Chris Grainger: 14:56

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

Chris Grainger: 15:02

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: 15:20

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 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 the lionwithinus slash r-o-a-r. To get your weekly roar today.