Welcome to The Line 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. I'm telling you, this these are my favorite. I absolutely love the spiritual kickoffs. This week, we're in the book of Nehemiah, and we're going to really dig into Nehemiah this week. The Wednesday episode is going to be all about it. Fellas, this is what it's all about. But we're in the second chapter, the 18th verse, and it says, And I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the king's words, which he had spoken to me. Then they said, This is this is key right here. Let's arise and build. So they put their hands to the good work. Fellas, that's some great scripture right there. And I mean, let's go. We're going to see how we can simplify and apply this to our life. That's again with the spiritual kickoff episodes every week. This is what we do. If you enjoy these, and we feel like you guys do based off our feet, the feedback we see, I highly encourage you. Go check out thelionwithin.us. Start your daily spiritual kickoff for free today. I do this Monday through Friday within our Lion Within is community, live every morning, reading God's Word, trying to equip, trying to encourage, trying to just inspire some guys, just sharing what the Holy Spirit reveals to me. It's a great way. You can engage with me directly when we do this. And if you miss it, don't worry. We put the videos right there in the feed so you get that every day. But again, this is we don't put this anywhere else. It's not on our YouTube channel or anything anywhere else out there on social media or anything like that. It's an intimate way that we try to encourage guys every day. So look, the lionwithin.us, start your free daily spiritual kickoff experience today. Okay. So first of all, as we unpack the scripture, we need to understand where is the book of Nehemiah. It can be a little bit tricky. It's Old Testament. Most guys do know that, but it's not in uh past like Psalms and Proverbs and the right. It's not past that where it's within your within your prophets. It's actually before, okay? So you're gonna find Nehemiah before Ezra, uh, I'm sorry, after Ezra and before Esther. Okay, so that's where you're gonna typically find it in your Bible. So if you open your Bible midway to Psalms, you need to flip back to the left, okay? So this just trying to give you a little bit of a of a tip. So if a pastor ever says open up to Nehemiah, if you remember that part, maybe that will that will help you, okay? And we love this call right here in the scripture. If you look at the scripture directly, just rise up and build, man. That that is awesome. Because that's a wake-up call. I mean, really, that's a wake-up call that we cannot just put to the side whatsoever. And and and we have to think about it. When Nehemiah wrote this, it this was not some poetic thing like he like he was just trying to put it together to sound good. No. This was practical, bro. This was practical. It was the cry of a guy. Absolutely. He saw the devastation around him, and and he was like, you know what? I'm doing something about this. I'm gonna take action. I'm not gonna make excuses. You know, he didn't he didn't organize a little prayer breakfast or start a vision board. No, he rallied people, bro. He rallied people uh and and and and all around to rebuild what had been torn down, right? Crazy part is, they listened. And we need that type of leadership again today, particularly from guys in the church. And I'm not talking out there directly to the guys who are employed by the church. You boys got your own mission to do for sure. I'm talking about guys like me, the lay, the layperson dudes for that that need to start stepping up. And for decades, if we look back, you can see it. You can see it all around it. Churches slowly started watching men fade into the background. You know, fewer men started joining, even fewer men started leading. And it's very clear. We got more work to do, boys. We do. Because where are the men who will lead their families not just into the building on Sunday, but into the presence of God each and every day? Okay? We're the men that's gonna trade apathy for action, passivity for purpose. I'm telling you guys this is a big, big deal. And if you look inside the church, very commonly we see it. You see women running the ministries, leading the programs, leading the kids, organizing the prayer nights, carrying the weight of discipleship. And I just want to say first and foremost to go on record, praise God for and for their obedience. Because if it hadn't been for them, there's no telling what would have happened. But it wasn't supposed to be their solo effort. Okay, it should not just be their burden. We have got to stop vacating our posts. And the reality is when we step back as dudes, the the church limps along. Our homes get our suffering, communities just grow darker. And leadership voids are never neutral, fellas. If somebody steps out of a leadership role, somebody else is gonna step in, period. So if you abandon your role all around you, right, then I guarantee you, confusion and compromise are gonna gladly move in and take the place. And we gotta shift from that. We absolutely have to shift from that. It just can't just be some soft, uh, this sounds like a good idea. No, it has to be a bold course correction that is spirit-driven 100%. And and when we start thinking about the context of this scripture for us today, what do we need to rebuild? Well, the this the walls, the broken walls of Jerusalem, right, were what Nehemiah was focusing on. But there are places in our homes right now, in our churches, that have crumbled. And the walls are under attack. And until we step up into our discipleship journey and take the reins here, it's gonna continue. And God isn't asking us to just sit there and admire the ruins and talk about how screwed up stuff is. Anybody can do that and just talk about how bad stuff is. He's calling us to do something, to be the rebuilders. And just like with Nehemiah's day, this rebuilding starts with one decision. And that decision is not someday, but right now. Dog on it right now. I'm gonna do something. So I'm gonna give you just a couple practical ideas, just things to consider, okay? You can rise up and start building now. First thing you start doing is leading spiritually in your house. Maybe you need to be starting a daily rhythm of prayer with your with your family and your kids. Or how about this? Open the Bible before you cut on the TV. I'm telling you, man, you start doing stuff like that, the people in your home will start watching. Second thing you start thinking about is serving at church, right? And here's the thing, bro. Don't wait to be asked. Just just show up, hold some doors, join a team, ask, teach, mentor, discipleship. You don't need a title, bro. You need a towel. Remember that. And if you're getting the pushback from church leadership in these areas to serve, find another church. Find another church. I'm telling you, this is a big area that I've been struggling with, and it's something God has been making clearer and clearer for me. Now, third thing you do, you better bring some, you gotta get some brothers around you, okay? You gotta be around some other godly men. Iron sharpens iron, but you can't have that if you only have one piece of iron, bro. You can't. Because you can't. A lone wolf out there in this world we live in becomes a starving wolf, okay? And we are not meant to fight alone. So I've said this over and over and over. But if you need support here, go to the lionwithin.us. You can join the daily spiritual cook off for free. But if you really want this brotherhood, join the community. If you want to go to the next level of brotherhood, consider our leadership mastermind, okay? Now, we also need to take a stand for truth, okay? When we see things happening around us, so far as us being called to rise and build, you better start being bold. We can't just shrink back from the hard conversations. If we see an outright injustice, we have to, as men, stand up. And that could be in your workplace, that could be in your neighborhood, that could be in your just your circles of influence you have around you. You have to do this humbly for sure, but you have to be courageous. And we need more of this. Because this passivity, this apathy is absolutely destroying us. And then we do need to support those in church leadership, okay? We need to encourage them, we need to protect them, but also come alongside them because they're under attack and they need some godly men in their corner. So what we have to do is reclaim that post, fellas. We have to. He wired us for responsibility. You know it's in you. You can feel it. He wired us for protection. Somebody comes and tries to mess with your kids. What are you gonna do? You're gonna absolutely do whatever you have to do to protect them, right? He's wired us for leadership, okay? It's not about being controlling, it's not about being loud. It's more about being present, anchored, and spirit-led. Because you can't just consider yourself a member, right? No, I'm not just a member. Bro, you're a builder, you're a restorer, you're a watcher. And man, the church needs you. It's waiting for you. He didn't, Nehemiah, if we go look at what he did, bro. He didn't do it by himself. He started with a burden that the Lord put on his heart. He prayed about it, then he cast a division, and then he called others to rise up and join him. And that call is for us today. Because the question isn't if he's calling, it's it's whether or not we're listening, boys. Because he is calling. So we got to put the excuses to the side. We got to start trying to just you know be passive. We have to rise up because our family needs us, our church needs us, the kingdom of God needs us, he chooses to work with us. And fellas, God has already equipped us. We just have to lean into it. So, fellas, look, I know that's a lot right there, okay? But God has called you to step up somewhere and to serve. So the question this week is where is that? And fellas, if you are brave enough to ask that question, I guarantee you God's gonna give you something. And it may be something super small, it could be something as small as like uh working the parking team at your church or the welcoming team at your church, or uh helping in the nursery at your church. Oh, I'll be praying for you if the Lord calls you to that. But seriously, he's calling you to something. Are you gonna listen? Or are you just gonna say, I'll get to it eventually. I'm telling you, boys, that delayed obedience is still disobedience. Don't don't kid yourself for a second. We need more guys that are gonna lean in and say, Yep, he's called me, I'm ready to go. All right now. For you guys that are listening, that have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and I'm not naive enough to think that everybody listens to the line is a Christian. I know most of you are, but some of you are probably not. We've got we're we're getting more and more listeners now. Guys are finding our content, which is praise the Lord. So we're gonna keep stewarding that well. So on our spiritual kickoff episodes, we always end up with just sharing with you about the gospel. Because you may have been to church or a bunch of times, or you may have never been to church. Maybe you put you clicked on a lion because you like lions. I don't know, bro, why you're here. But you're here and you're listening to me right now, at this moment in your life, and I don't know when that is, because that's the crazy part about podcasts. You can listen to them whenever you want to listen to them. But I know one thing. God's called me clearly to speak this to somebody listening right now, and that is that God absolutely loves you. And there was a perfect design when God created everything. In the beginning, he spoke everything into existence until it came to man. And what did he do? He formed man with his hands. You see the difference? The personal connection and relationship there? And then he breathed the breath of life into Adam's nostrils, and then Adam was set up and was face to face with his creator, and we are made in his image. You are made in his image. When you look in the mirror, that that jacked up person that you see in the mirror, that's not who God sees. God sees you as an image bearer of him. That's who he is. He loves you so much. He he designed you exactly the way that he wanted. You may see him as flaws, he sees it as perfection, bro. And it was great for Adam for like two pages in the Bible, okay? And then sin entered the world. And then don't get tripped up, man. Sin is only the only thing, the easy way to remember sin is anything that separates us from God. That sin entered the world and that fractured relationship that Adam had and Eve had with the creator. So now we have a holy and righteous God, and then we have us, and there's this massive chasm between us, okay? And the problem is the world's gonna tell you, well, you can close that gap. All you gotta do is just be a good person, man. Just help folks out, give a little bit of money to some charities, go to church every now and then. Like, if you just do enough good stuff, bro, when you die and you get to heaven, they'll say, Well, let's just look and say, Oh, well, he did this and this. Come on in, buddy. Come on in. And I'm here to tell you that is a lie for the pit of hell. Because hell is full of good dudes. It just is. It's just full of good dudes. Now I'm not saying I don't want you to do good. I absolutely want you to do good. I just don't want you to think that those good works are going to count for anything so far as paying for your salvation, because it doesn't. Period. We can't do it. We can't earn it on our own. Okay. We need not a coach, we need a savior to come in and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. And that's where Jesus enters the scene. Okay. So Jesus left heaven on a rescue mission for each and every one of us. He was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the teachings, all the miracles, did all everything in your New Testament, Jesus did it all. He fulfilled it all. Like this is this is unbelievable that we have Messiah who come and did for us what he did. But the craziest part is he willingly went to the cross and gave up his life for you. Think about that for a second. Like I I got four kids and I would I would give my life up. If if one of them, if it's a life or death situation and it's them or me, I'm gonna go. I'm I'm taking myself out for them and and and pray that they live a live a great life. Someone else? I don't know. You know, I'm not gonna sacrifice myself or someone else. Very, you know, you get what I'm saying. It's not it's not something that that we inherently think about doing. But God loves us so much that he sent his one and only son. And bro, when you start thinking about he he sent his son and knowing that his son was gonna pay no penalty for our sin by going to the cross, it blows your dog on mind. Blows your mind. And that's what Jesus did for us. He went to the cross, willingly went to the cross, was crucified, pierced for our transgressions, and died. He didn't pass out, he didn't faint, he didn't go to sleep. He died. They laid him in the cross, they laid him in a tomb. Okay, so this is what he did to Jesus' body. They laid him in a tomb after all this. And then at that point, he's dead, right? Story over. Okay, well, let's just uh pretend like we're going to a funeral every Sunday because Jesus is dead. Like if that's where the story ended, yeah, that would be pretty sad. Most religions are like that, okay? When when they have a founder, at some point, the founder dies, and guess what? He they they still dead. But that's not what we deal with when we put our faith and our hope in Jesus Christ, because he overcame death. You get how big a deal that is? I don't know about you, but I'm I'm hitching my wagon to the guy who defeated death. Because that guy right there, that's somebody I'm following. And that right now it says Jesus is that's at the right hand of the Father. No one comes to the Father except through him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. There's no other name under heaven that's been given among men by which we must be saved. It is Jesus. He is it. Oprah's wrong. There's not multiple paths. Jesus is the path. Period. Okay? So you can't work your way in. That's kind of tough. But you can get in by grace because he's given you this, this, this awesome gift. It just takes a couple things. Just recognize it first and foremost that you are a sinner in need of a savior. You have to really wrestle and understand this, okay? That I'm pretty jacked up and yeah, I need a savior. And then you need to recognize primarily, not primarily, it has to be recognized that Jesus is that savior. Like he is the Son of God. Like there's no questions about that in your mind. And then you have to confess Him as Lord and Savior of your life. And at that moment, He moves from head knowledge to your heart. And the Holy Spirit's gonna come and dwell. The scales are gonna fall off, and you're gonna be in the army, in the Lord's army at that moment, ready to serve and do what God's called you to do. But it takes a decision like you cannot get to heaven on your mom or your dad, bro. It don't work that way. Or your grandma. It don't work that way. This is a personal, individual decision. Well, Chris, I'm just gonna live my life, and when I get to when I get older, I'll do it. Okay. Well, how long are you gonna live, bro? No one wakes up and says today's the day like my life's gonna run out. No, you never think that, right? I mean, it things happen. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just trying to just, hey, things happen. People drown, people have accidents. It happens all the time. So don't put off doing that business with God that you need to do today, man. Don't put that off. So if you if you never surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I'm gonna give you an opportunity right now. Let's just pray together, right now. And you invite him into your life, and then you just wait to see what the Holy Spirit does. Then whatever that next thing he tells you to do, let's just do it. So let's pray right now. Lord, thank you so much for this opportunity just to share the gospel. There's a listener, I don't know where they're located, Lord, but I do you do. You've known everything about them up to this moment, and you know that you've been working working on them for a long time. Because I recognize too that one gospel presentation on the lion within us is not what saves someone. There's there's been seeds that have been sown in this person's life that got them to this point. And now for some reason they're hearing it clearly and they're ready to respond. So, Lord, I just pray you to be with them, guide them, direct them, put some people in their life that's going to encourage them. And thank you for this opportunity to share the good news with others. It's in your name we pray. Amen. So look, if you just accepted Christ as your Savior, I want to hear from you, okay? Because I want to hook you up with some free resources to help you. You just started a discipleship journey, whether you believe it or you recognize it or not, okay? So I want to send you some resources to help you get started with some scriptures, some basic one-on-one stuff that you just need to have in your back pocket. I also want to find out where you're at because if you're not in a church, I want to give you some ideas on things to look for. Not just like like red flags. I want to give you some green flags too. Some what's what are some things to look for to be encouraged by if you're if you're trying to pick a church that's gonna really serve you well as you grow in your relationship with Christ, okay? So email me. That's the easiest at Chris at thelionwithin.us. You can email me directly. Just just tell me which podcast you listen to and that you've accepted Christ. Well, I'm gonna send you those resources. I'd love to hop on a call and just give you give you some encouragement, pray for you, and welcome you into the brotherhood. All right. So thank you so much for listening, guys, again. Thelionwithin.us is where you find all of our resources. Okay, so you can join our daily spiritual kickoff there. You can join our community there, you can do your application for the leadership mastermind there. You can also find our Bible study plans that are on the Bible app there, fellas. I'm telling we got tons and tons and tons of those plans. You can see our live events. We have a live event every spring and fall, so you can see those that are coming out. So you can plan an opportunity for you and your fellow uh buddies to come hang out with us on the farm and do some shooting, do some do some fishing, do some hiking, do some good eating, all the fun stuff that we do on those uh retreats. Again, all that's found at the linewithin.us. If you want to donate to the show, if you find that we're encouraging you each and every week and you just you felt led to support us for what we're doing, that would be awesome. We would absolutely love it. And quite frankly, we need it. So if you could sit, you could always go to thelionwithin.us slash donate and just be a supporter of the show. All right. Well, guys, have a great day. Come back on Wednesday. I'm telling you, you're gonna really like this conversation on Wednesday. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be great. This is gonna be a fun one. We're gonna be digging into Nehemiah at a much deeper level, and hopefully, you guys are gonna just get a lot out of it. So have a great day. Give us a rating review if you don't mind. You know what's coming right. Keep unleashing the lion with them. I've got something big to share. 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, and 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 a band of brothers standing beside them. And starting now, we're making it easier than ever to step in. We've lowered the barrier to just $15.99 a month. 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