Chris Grainger: 1:38

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, spiritual kickoff time. Let's go.

Chris Grainger: 1:49

My favorite book in the Bible by far James, chapter 1, verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all, without finding fault, and it will be given to you. So, guys, yeah, my favorite book in the Bible love spending time with James. You don't know where it's at. It can be a little tricky to find a time. It's in your New Testament, just after Hebrews and before first Peter. Okay, so it's, it's a. It's a short little book, so it can be a little bit tricky, but that's that's where you can find it in the new Testament.

Chris Grainger: 2:25

Okay, and this whole week we're going to be talking about what I call like the triple crown, like the triple crown of spiritual growth, and we're going to unpack three areas, but ultimately, everything leads up to wisdom. Okay, and I think it's important as we start unpacking this in this spiritual kickoff episode, because again, we're trying to simplify and apply God's word to our life, and again, we do this Monday through Friday within the Lion, within Us community. So head on over to the lionwithinus and get started with that. But wisdom, if we start thinking about, you got understanding, you got knowledge, you got wisdom. And wisdom is more than just knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to see things from another perspective, primarily for the believer, from God's perspective. It's not just about making good decisions, it's about aligning our hearts with His truth, with His purpose, with His timing. That With his timing, that's a hard one. But wisdom is not natural. It doesn't just come naturally. It has to be sought after, it has to be cultivated, it has to be, you know, uh, applied to our life.

Chris Grainger: 3:31

And for me I kind of go back, you know. You know, guys, I love telling stories. But like racing, you know, I worked in race cars for a long time and in the world of racing it's not just about speed. There's a lot of preparation that comes into it, there's a lot of execution, there's a lot of applying wisdom in the right moments. So for building a fast race car, there's hours spent fine-tuning that equipment, you know, and studying the track and the different pieces of data and running practice laps. And it's in those pre-race moments, you know, that's when you win the race. You know when the race actually starts. All the work's been done, because without the right adjustments, without the right of pre-work that's been done, no amount of raw speed is going to guarantee success.

Chris Grainger: 4:19

Right, and we start thinking about our spiritual walk. You know, we can gain knowledge of scripture, we can understand its principles. Like you can memorize stuff right, all day long. You can even not memorize it to the point where you can teach it. But without wisdom, you won't be able to apply it at the right time when you need it most, the right way. And that's the.

Chris Grainger: 4:40

That's the list, the missing link, and what james is talking about here. He's like look, wisdom is not something produced, it's a gift. But we're not asking for it. And why don't we ask for it, fellas? Let's just think about that for a second pride. Pride gets in the way because pride tells us that you know, I got this, bro, I don't need this. And our own instincts aren't enough, our own plans aren't enough, we want to be in control. But wisdom really requires something. That's countercultural these days Humility Now, everybody says that they're humble, but are you really?

Chris Grainger: 5:15

Are you really? Because it's not wisdom. At the end of the day, it's not about having all the answers, it's about surrendering to the one who does, and that takes a high level of humility. Again, I always talk about humility. It's not thinking less of yourself, just thinking of yourself less. That's an easy way to remember it.

Chris Grainger: 5:35

But man, the world that we're in says no, you have to YOLO, bro. You better look out for yourself, because if you don't look out for yourself, no one else is going to look out for you. We don't believe that. Christians. We have to recognize that that's a false lie. God sees everything and we can only see the next turn. Go back to the racetrack. I can only see one turn at a time. God sees the whole track. See what I'm saying.

Chris Grainger: 5:59

So there's a path it's laid out in Scripture for us as well to understand. There's a path of true wisdom and it starts with studying God's Word. You've got to know the truth. You just do Just like I had to study the track, had to study the data from the race car. You got to study God's word and you have to really study it to for a deeper level of understanding, not just surface level stuff like truly want to just have the craving and desire to know his word more Right, and if you study it, then you got to share it. And I found no better way to share it than to teach it Right, because look like you'll never be as prepared for something in the Bible as you are if you have to teach it.

Chris Grainger: 6:43

I'm just telling you, someone who's taught Sunday school classes for years now, that there is a good push, a good inherent push. A good inherent push when you are the person responsible for delivering God's word and for sharing it and for encouraging others with it and equipping them with it. Man, it grows you like no other. And then if you do all these things, then you get to apply it. Okay, just like we. Okay, I knew what I needed to adjust on a race car.

Chris Grainger: 7:12

It's one thing to know it. Then I had to actually go to the car and put my hands on it and adjust it. Maybe it was a shock or a spring, or you know gear ratio, or maybe you know a track bar or a sway bar. There's different things. There's all sorts of adjustment points on a race car, but I need to know what they are. Then I had to actually do them. So it's only valuable when, and in real time, you know if the car is tight, he comes into it. I need to go up on the spring on the right rear to help it turn. You know what it doesn't do any good if I just know what I need to do. I have to actually put the spring on right, and that's where wisdom comes in. It's not a one-time achievement, it's ongoing and it's a lifelong pursuit.

Chris Grainger: 7:52

Fellas, let's just face the facts. It requires us to ask and ask us. It requires us to listen and then it requires us to act in faith. But God gives us wisdom to those who seek it. There's no judgment or prerequisites or anything like that. It's an invitation. So I don't know what you're working on right now or what you're preparing for, or what you're practicing or how you plan on applying what you learn, but I do know this God's wisdom is always available. It's always available. We just got to ask him. We have to have to be super intentional about taking the step to ask him. And James, james, he hits us between the eyes.

Chris Grainger: 8:34

Look, if you're lacking some wisdom, more than what you're supposed to do, you should ask God. You should ask God and it will be given to you. But man, getting to that point of asking. It is so hard sometimes because we don't want to feel like we need anything. I just want to encourage you, bro, if you're going through a tough season right now difficult season. Things aren't happening the way that you wish they would happen at work. Maybe things aren't happening the way you wish they would at home. You and your wife are always at different ends of the spectrum on things. You and your kids are never getting along.

Chris Grainger: 9:06

Take it to God, ask okay, what are you trying to teach me here? Show me what you want me to do and I will take the practical step moving forward. Which leads me to the question what practical steps can you take to seek His wisdom daily? There are steps you can take. We just went through a few right here. But what are some small things you can do? It could just be as simple as start your day by thanking Him for the day and then, when you're going throughout the day, ask Him for that wisdom, not for your own glory, but for him to be glorified.

Chris Grainger: 9:40

Okay, now, if you've listened to the lion long enough, you know on our spiritual kickoff episodes, we want to take a moment just to make sure that you know if you don't have Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What an opportunity you have in front of you Because for some reason you've listened to the Lion Within Us. You've got to this part of this episode and God is trying to show you and tell you something. And I just want to encourage you. I want you to know something God loves you. He had a perfect design in mind and when he made you he's like yep, that's exactly how I want to make that one. He loves us so much. His perfect design was great at the beginning and he made Adam the first man and he formed him with his hands, it says. I think that's just super cool to kind of give you a visualization, just an imagery there of God and breathing the breath of life into Adam, and Adam sets up, he's face to face with his creator, and how cool that must have been, how incredibly awesome that must have been.

Chris Grainger: 10:47

And then things unfortunately took a turn for the bad when sin entered the world and that sin separates us from God. And now we live in this constant state of separation and the more and more guys I talk to about this kind of stuff, the clearer it becomes that guys think that what we have to do to get into heaven is just be a good person, do enough good. And my pushback to that is always well, what's enough? Like what? Have you reached that point of enough good? You know where is that at? Because it seems like that's a sliding scale, that's a variable, you know, and that's where people usually start scratching their head. Well, I hadn't thought of it that way. I'm like, exactly, you know, because enough good, I don't want to do too much, or I don't want to. What if you miss it by one deed and you get to the gates of heaven? You're like man, sorry, so close. You know, that is so subjective, right?

Chris Grainger: 11:59

So we need, ultimately, if we have a gap that we can't overcome on our own, we need somebody to fill the gap for us, since we can't do it ourselves. And that's where Jesus comes in right. And so we need a functional Savior to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. We don't need a coach to help us improve our own abilities. That's not it. So, if we need a Savior, who is it? Well, jesus, because he left Heaven on a rescue mission for us, was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, performed all the miracles, all the different types of teachings, showed us the way, taught us, gave us all the instructions, fulfilled everything there, and then he went to the cross and he died for our sins. So he took on the penalty for our sins. And then the crazy part absolutely is that he overcame death and he rose. He's resurrected and that's who we serve a living Savior, not some dead guy, right. So Jesus paid the penalty. So that means that, okay, we have a Savior available to us that's offering a free gift of salvation.

Chris Grainger: 13:07

What do you have to do? Well, you've got to ask for it. You've got to ask Him into your heart. You've got to turn from your ways and turn to Him and believe that he is your Lord and Savior, he is the Messiah, and put all your trust in Him. And it sounds so simple.

Chris Grainger: 13:26

But this is where so many people stumble, because they think Jesus was just a nice guy, a good teacher and for sure. Maybe he was a prophet. But man, I don't know about this God stuff. And I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you the evidence is overwhelming. Jesus is the Messiah and you have an invitation. And you have an invitation, as long as you're alive, to accept him as your Savior. But the moment that your time is up, that invitation's over, because at that point it's go or no go.

Chris Grainger: 14:01

And look, there's lots of people who take different positions on this, but I'm just telling you, I will put my trust and my hope in the guy who overcame death, the guy who rose, the guy who performed all the miracles. That's my Savior, that's my Lord, and I pray that is what the decision that you make right now the greatest part is too. You don't have to make this decision sitting in a church, like no. You can make the decision to follow Christ as your Lord and Savior right now, today. So if you're ready to confess Him as your Savior, let's just pray together. Let's just pray together right now. So, father, just thank you so much. We love you For that one listener who's ready to confess you as Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray you hear their prayer. I pray that they feel that peace that passes all understanding, flood over them right now. As they know, they've been putting this off for too long. So I just pray, god, you be with them, you encourage them, and I'm so thankful for this most important Bible decision that they made today. In Jesus' name, amen, alright. So look, if you just accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Chris Grainger: 15:00

I want to hear from you, chris, at thelinewithedus. Send me an email. I'd like to send you a bunch of free resources to get you started and run your discipleship journey. I want to send you some scriptures, some Bible study resources, some things we put together just to kind of help get you equipped, and I also just want to celebrate with you. This is a big, big deal. This is a bigger deal than you may even recognize. Okay, so I want to hear from you. Okay, so send me that.

Chris Grainger: 15:24

Come back on a Wednesday episode. We'll keep unpacking this triple crown of spiritual growth. I think you guys will enjoy this. So this is something that I definitely enjoy sharing and hopefully you'll get a lot of value out of it. So, guys, have a great day. Thank you so much Again.

Chris Grainger: 15:38

The lion withinus Head over there, check out all our resources, get started on a mastermind, get started in the community. All the ways we connect with people. Try to serve people. Thelionwithinus, all right, get after it. Fellas, thank you so much, and keep unleashing the lion within. I've got something big to share.

Chris Grainger: 15:56

We're making a major shift because we know the battle is real and it's time more men had access to the support they need. For too long, guys have been trying to carry the weight alone Pressure at work, tension at home, wounds from the past In a world that demands strength but offers no place to rest. We see it, we've lived it, and that's exactly why we built our community. It's a stronghold, a place where warriors can find rest Truth. And it's a stronghold, a place where warriors can find rest, truth and a band of brothers standing beside them.

Chris Grainger: 16:25

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