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, guys, this is your spiritual kickoff episode. Are you ready to go? I sure hope you are All right, let's get right into it, okay?

Chris Grainger: 1:25

So the scripture this week is going to be in the book of Romans, chapter 15. Just looking at one verse, verse 13,. Okay, the book of Romans, chapter 15,. Just looking at one verse, verse 13. Okay. It says may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's just a beautiful verse. Right there, paul obviously just hanging on the rim when he wrote Romans, listening to the Holy Spirit obeying. And then you get this type of beautiful scripture that you know.

Chris Grainger: 1:55

A couple thousand years later, we're still just studying and thinking about and trying to apply it to our life. And that's again the spiritual kickoff. That's what it's all about, fellas, is how do we simplify and apply God's word into our life and align within us? We're here for one reason, that's disciple leaders. That's it. And as we disciple leaders, we need to understand the application of God's word. That's really what it's about, and this SKO each and every Monday is really that just my reflections on that. And we do this as well, monday through Friday, inside the Lion Withinist community. So highly encourage you to go check out thelionwithinus, start your community experience, click over there on offerings You'll find it and join a community today. I'm telling you, it's a great way to get that little boost, that little kick that you need every day. And the cool part is the way we do it Even if you can't be on the live stream that we have going on the videos posted. So I mean, it's literally there for you to consume and it libraries there. So maybe you need an extra day where you just need a couple of booths to go. Look, you can go get a few of those, uh, daily spiritual kickoffs that no one else gets. It's a, it's exclusive content directly within the line, within that us. So head over there, start your community experience today. All right, all right Now.

Chris Grainger: 3:07

So for this one, before we get into it too deep, we need to understand where is the book of Romans? You got New Testament, matthew, mark, luke, john, acts, romans. Ok, so you know we had the book here and we need to understand something we'll be talking about this way this entire week is when we get stuck, when life throws us a curveball, what do we do? How do we respond? And this what we see in Romans 15, 13, is a wonderful reminder that our hope, ultimately, our joy and any peace we're ever going to find, is not relying on our circumstances, but it's really founded when we trust the God who never fails us, because if we put too much hope in our happenings, that changes. That's all circumstantial, you know. That's why you guys hear me talk about sometimes happiness is tied to your happenings. Like I can be super happy at times when things are going my way, but as soon as that thing stopped going my way, guess what? Chris ain't happy, no more. And that just may be. I don't know if that's new to you, if you ever heard it that way before.

Chris Grainger: 4:16

But when we try to find our hope and our happenings and the things, the circumstances of this world, it's going to leave us at some point unsatisfied. Because I don't care how awesome that new truck is, I don't care how awesome that new home is that you've bought, or even the new marriage. You're in honeymoon land. At some point you're going to have a fight. You just are. Things are just going to leave down, the truck's going to break down. At some point you'll be like I can't believe we live here.

Chris Grainger: 4:48

You know what I'm saying, because we try to find our hope in things in this world and it's not there. And we need to check this scripture and try to think through what the Holy Spirit can reveal to us. So the first thing we need to understand is hope can restore things for us, because this isn't just like wishful thinking or blind optimism like, oh, it'll be what it'll be. No, it's a confident expectation. We, as believers, can have a confident expectation in the promises of God and that can sustain us in some difficult times because it helps us shift from what's happening right now to what's going to happen forever. No matter how crappy it gets right, the dawn is coming, it just is, and the Holy Spirit, through the revelation that we get with that, is the hope that fills us to the point it should just overflow from us, not just enough for us to get through the day and survive. No, but I'm talking about thriving thriving and sharing and helping and caring. When we trust in God fully, we're beacons. At that point the light's just going to pour out and then you'll be able to face the obstacles that come your way and that's going to lead to a transformation of joy. Okay, because when we talk about joy you guys heard me talk about this before, if you listened to the show at any length Joy is not tied to your circumstances.

Chris Grainger: 6:25

Joy is a deep relationship with God. You know, when we lost our daughter, zero joy, zero happiness. Rather, we still had joy. Why? Because we knew that she was with him in heaven. And when you start leaning into that, you start thinking about that, start thinking about his presence in your life. Even if you're going through the darkest, darkest places, there can be light there, there can be life there, and that's rooted in his work and him doing his work in all things for good, says Romans 8, 28,. Right, so it's not fleeting or fragile or something like that, but it's enduring and it's transformative. And if we let the joy of the Lord truly be our strength, it's going to change how we approach stuff, fellas, you'll become more resilient. You're going to be able to endure those trials gracefully. Can I get an amen on that, because you know that God is shaping you for something so much greater, so much greater.

Chris Grainger: 7:29

That joy, fellas, it's something that just can't be explained Again. My life verse it said James considered it pure joy when he faced trials. And it makes no sense whatsoever until you go through a trial and you come out of it and you can look back and go oh okay, I see why I needed to consider that joy, because here's how God has drawn me through that and that leads to a redemption, because God is really good at making things new. He just is. So if you're being weighed down by, maybe it's a past mistake, maybe something that happened, you just can't shake it, or maybe something's happening right now. You don't know how you're going to get out of it, or you're just paralyzed with fear.

Chris Grainger: 8:12

We need to remember I pray you remember that His mercies are new every morning, fellas, and renewal is possible because God ain't done with you. I know that's not good English, but just to be real, god ain't done what you felt, boy, it's just the way it is the alarm clock, the empty tune, the way Pastor Joey says. That's proof that God is not done with you and there's potential to be transformed and renewal begins when you start with that simple act of surrendering. You just lay it all at his feet Like Lord. I can't carry it, I don't have this, I do not have this, but I know you do, and the Holy Spirit is going to start guiding you and directing you, giving you these little nudges to take these steps of faith into the future. So this is building your confidence in his ability to redeem every part of your story. There's not a part of your story that can't be used for good. You just have to lean into it and it should overflow, because Romans 15, 13 doesn't stop at hope, joy and peace. No, it don't stop there. It calls us to overflow.

Chris Grainger: 9:17

Our trust in God, fellas should produce an abundance that can't be contained. It's kind of like you start filling that water jug up and you've got to get the water off. I do this all the time on the farm. Fill up the big tanks and stuff for the horses. You come back. Oh crap, I forgot that one. Guess what happens when I go back? It's overflowing, it's just overflowing. That jug can't contain it. Neither should we, because we're not supposed to just hoard everything. No, we're not supposed to, but we're supposed to share. And when you do that sharing, you're becoming that instrument of his grace. At that point, how about that? God is using you and you're an instrument of his grace.

Chris Grainger: 10:09

No-transcript. God is calling you to trust in him fully and when you finally do this, he's going to fill you with a hope that restores, that transforms, and that renews and redeems that you can't even begin to put your mind around and just reflect on it for a second. You know, when you start thinking about it, about what gives you hope when life feels overwhelming or uncertain. And it is my prayer as we just unpack this Romans 15, 13 again may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see how that verse just came to life now it's so much more alive just by going through those reflections. That's the God we have, the God of hope. He's filling you. It doesn't say fill your neighbor, it says filling you with all joy and peace. The rarest commodity on earth is peace of mind. I'm going to amen on that one. But we have to put our trust in him and if we do that, that overflow of hope. It's just going to be pouring out onto others and it's all because of the Holy Spirit. It's just. It's beautiful how Paul just ties all this together and I'm praying that you're starting to see now how you can apply this to your walk and to your life. Now, if you don't have this hope, if you don't have that relationship with Christ right now and you're listening to the Lion Within Us you're here for a reason.

Chris Grainger: 11:47

I'm not naive enough to think that everyone who listens to the Lion Within Us is a believer. It's just not. There's too many listeners out there to think that everyone who listens is a Christian. Maybe you're curious, maybe you're just trying to understand what this Christian thing is all about, or I don't know. Maybe somebody tricked you and sent you this podcast and you know what you're running and you don't want to stop and you're hearing my voice. Whatever it is, I want to share with you.

Chris Grainger: 12:13

If you're missing that peace, any source of peace in your with you, if you're missing that peace, any source of peace in your life, if you're always anxious or worried or stressed out or bitter or angry, it could be a reason for this. It could be because you've never seen your life in Christ. You've never truly taken that step of obedience. Maybe it's because you don't even know what to do. I just want to start off by telling you, whatever the lie is, that the evil one's telling you right now about you. Don't believe it. Maybe he's telling you you're fat, or you're dumb, or you're slow, or you're not good enough, or you're just an adulterer, or you're just someone who's just been divorced no one can ever love you or you're not any good, like you're pathetic. Whatever that lie is, it's a lie and he wants you to believe it. I want you to know that you're made in God's image. That is who you are, and God loves you so much. And just think about it. He took the time to form the first man, adam, with his hands. I just think that I can't get over that. And he breathed the breath of life into Adam's nostrils. And when Adam sat up, he was face to face with God, made in his image and doggone it. You are too. You just are. You're not perfect, no, you're not perfect, but you're perfect in the eyes of God for sure, because he loves you so much.

Chris Grainger: 13:36

The problem happened a couple pages into my Bible. Was that relationship that Adam had with God was fractured because sin entered the world, and sin is, very simply, anything that separates us from God. That's all sin is. Adam had to be escorted out of the garden with Eve. Now this is where we've been at right.

Chris Grainger: 13:55

There's this gap between a holy and righteous God and us as sinners. And the problem is, guys I was this way for a long time is we try to close that gap on our own. We're trying to do this. We're trying to come together and close that gap through our actions, through the things we do, from helping people, you know, through the things we do for, you know, helping people, donating money, going to church, reading our Bibles, you know, leading family devotions, all these things that we try to do, do, do, do, do, do, do. But ultimately they're not earning our salvation.

Chris Grainger: 14:31

But often we think we are. We think if we could just be good enough, right, if we could just be good enough, we'll get into heaven. The problem has to do with our definition of good and our standard there, because if we're comparing ourselves to people on death row, okay, we're probably doing pretty good. Okay, not judging here, just saying If you haven't killed anybody, you're not on death row, not bad. Problem is, instead of comparing to the person on death row, we need to be comparing ourselves to a holy and righteous God.

Chris Grainger: 15:03

Now, when we do that every single one of you out there, including me, I'm at the front of the line. We all fall short, all of us. So there's just this gap that exists that we can't close on our own, no matter what we try to do and we think that we can, and we try to coach it up and we try to just get better and just try to lean in and do more and bootstrap and all the terms right, me, me, me I try to close this gap. You're never going to do it. What you need is not a coach. You need someone to step in and do for you what you can't do for yourself. You need a Savior.

Chris Grainger: 15:42

And this is where Jesus enters. Very simply, he left heaven on a rescue mission for you, for me, for the entire world, and he left His throne, was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the miracles, the teachings Love, love, love. Just go Matthew, mark, luke and John, just read about Jesus and the wonderful things he did and then to fulfill the prophecy and to pay the penalty for your sin and my sin. He said I'm going to do it for them. They can't pay it, but I can. And he willingly went to the cross, was crucified and died. His perfect blood paid the penalty, the atonement, the propitiation for our sin.

Chris Grainger: 16:29

Then they laid him in a tomb right, but this is more like an Airbnb for Jesus. He didn't stay there long three days, right, and it's the reason we don't. It's not like we're going to a funeral and we go to church or something like that because the tomb is empty. He rose, he overcame death, and that's who we serve, that's who we worship, not some dead guys in a tomb, but a living Savior. And then he told him look, I'm going straight to heaven and I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, and he is it. He's the name above all names, and we have to recognize that. And that's where he sits right now, and what he's inviting us to is a free gift of salvation through faith. We put your trust in him.

Chris Grainger: 17:17

So you just need to first, at the gate, understand that, yes, you are made in God's image, but you are a sinner and you need something. You need a savior. You can't do this on your own. You can't earn it on your own. Your mom, your dad, your grandparents, they can't do this for you. This is a you decision that has to be made directly with God.

Chris Grainger: 17:39

And once you recognize that you need a Savior, at that point the question is are you going to confess him as Lord and I mean Lord over your entire life, every area, your finances, your career, your marriage, your kids, your community, like when you're in traffic, every area of your life? Because if you just hand it all over to him, you're like Lord. I trust you Just be prepared for the things that he's going to call you to. It's not always going to be easy, but I guarantee you it will always be better than doing it without him. And it takes the first step of obedience. It's confessing him as Lord, and I'm going to pray for you right now. If you're listening to my voice. You've never confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you feel like you're being called to do that today. Do it right now.

Chris Grainger: 18:35

Now, if you're driving, let's not close our eyes and pray, but you can still pray out loud and just invite the Lord right now into your life. Just surrender it all to him, bring it to the cross. Just let the Holy Spirit take it from there. So, father, I'm just praying for that one listener who's ready to just give it to you. They know, they know, know, know that they need to make this decision today. So I pray you give them the courage to do that. I pray you also just give them some encouragement as they take this first step of obedience. Put some people in their life that we're going to help them on their discipleship journey, because getting to the start line is not enough. We want to run the race well. So I just pray you just be with that listener. You guide them, direct them, just give them that peace that passes all understanding, and we just love you so much. God in Jesus' name.

Chris Grainger: 19:34

Amen, all right, so now, if you just confess Christ as your Savior, I want you to send me an email because I want to send you some free stuff. I want to get you a Bible study. I'm going to get you a couple of PDFs that are going to really help you get started in your discipleship journey, and I also want to see if we can get you plugged into a good Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church. So send me an email, chris at thelionwithin Don't forget the thelionwithinus. Let me know which episode you listen to as well, if you're listening to this particular one. And then what I want to do again, I'm going to reach out to you, I'm going to have a seat, send you all the things that I talked about for free anyway, just get you, get you started with all that. And then I love to hop on a call and just just give you a little encouragement, pray with you, answer any questions you may have and just try to just be a little bit of a cheerleader for you as you get started.

Chris Grainger: 20:30

All right, so again, chris at thelinewithinus is a great way to do that. And then look again, you can go over to thelinewithinus to find all the different ways we serve, we help. We have our weekly roar which really comes out on Mondays. If you're listening to this podcast, when this one comes out, the spiritual kickoffs come off, come out every Monday. We do the, the daily spiritual kickoff, monday through Friday, and within our community. So you go to the line within that us, click over an offering to get started today with that. Then we have our, our, our line, our line, our leadership assessment. I can talk, I promise Our leadership assessment. Okay, we have that.

Chris Grainger: 21:08

We have our Bible study resources from YouVersion. Lots of fun ways you can connect with us there. You can even connect with me directly on the YouVersion Bible app. We can be friends there and then when we do a Bible study we do about usually two a month is what we lay out and then you'll be able to walk through a Lion Within Bible Study that is, on the Bible app directly with me. You can comment, you can have some fun there. It's just a great way to engage. So again, thelionwithinus you click on that free tools, bible studies and you can have a link to connect with me directly on eVersion, which would be incredible. I would love to do that with you and then we can hopefully grow in our discipleship journey together on that app.

Chris Grainger: 21:47

So all these fun things, guys that we're talking about, the lionwithinus again within our community lots and lots of fun ways we try to help guys. We have our discipleship masterminds. Obviously, that's a big thing Lion lunches, friday forages, bible studies. Guys, we're leaning in every day to help you be the leader that God intends you to be, and the only thing that's missing from what we're doing is you. It only works when guys are there. So I encourage you to go to thealignwithinus, check out the ways to get started with us today. It's a great way, great great way to lean into your discipleship journey and look if we can help you within your men's group at church. Let me know we love to come and have conversations and encouragement, be a little bit of a kick in the pants sometimes that we do need as men. So, again, thelinewithinus is how you get started with all that. Okay, so come back on Wednesday. Fellas, we're going to have a really good episode for you. I think you're going to enjoy it and I'd love to see you guys get your feedback from it. We're talking a lot more about this idea of hope and how it's never too late, all right. So, guys, have a great day, get after it. Thank you so much for listening and remember to keep unleashing the lion within.

Chris Grainger: 23:05

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

Chris Grainger: 23:09

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: 23:23

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 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 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. Slash ROAR to sign up today. That's thelionwithinus slash ROAR to get your weekly ROAR today.