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, let's get right to it. This is a spiritual kickoff episode, and I'm excited to be here with you, okay? So the scripture this week, a little bit longer, be straight up. It's a little bit longer. Got two verses, but you could I I couldn't break them up. It just didn't make sense. They have to go together. So in the book of Jeremiah, the ninth chapter, verses 23 and 24 is where we're at, okay? Here's what it says Thus says the Lord, let no wise man boast of his wisdom, and let no mighty man boast of his might, let no rich man boast of his riches, but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. So guys, we're gonna see how we can attempt here, simplify and apply these two verses to our life as Christian men. Now again, spiritual kickoff episode each week. We love them, but I do this Monday through Friday in the Lion Within Us community. So if you enjoy this and you're looking for some exclusive behind-the-scenes content, stuff we don't put anywhere else, it's not on our YouTube channel or anywhere like that, head over to thelionwithin.us to start your daily spiritual kickoff experience. Okay, that's all it's free. We do it. We try to encourage guys to love on guys. That's the way you get started with us today, okay? So now as we get into this, we need to know where is the book of Jeremiah. So it can be a little bit difficult to find at times. So it's this Old Testament. If you find the book of Isaiah, so if you flip open the middle of your Bible, you usually hit Psalms, okay? If you just go a little bit to your right, you'll find Isaiah. And then after Isaiah is where you get to Jeremiah. If you get to Lamentations, you went a little bit too far, just back up. Okay, so that's really what this is all about. So so the whole idea of boasting that honors God is really what we're gonna be talking about today, okay? And if we think about you know what's going on here in the book of Jeremiah, uh what he's trying to, what he's showing us, most guys can relate to the the warning that's here because he calls out, hey, wisdom, might, riches. Hey, that's a warning. We need to be careful of those areas. Like uh, and and they can be stumbling blocks for lots of guys. Like for wisdom, maybe we feel like we're we're we're competent, we're smart enough to handle things on our own, like I got this, bro, right? Or might. Maybe you think it's like you look at a shelf at the gym, you and you're flexing off, you're feeling strong, you're feeling capable, you're feeling in control, like nobody can take me out. Or riches, because lots of guys, let's just be honest, you measure success by how much you can buy, achieve, or store up. Like how the you you measure your your success by the the zeros in your bank account, right? And I'm telling you, each of these, if we trust these apart from God, man, that's a lie, and that lie is self-sufficiency. Okay, and there's a danger here, okay, when we start thinking that we're wise enough, strong enough, and wealthy enough. Okay, and the first things that starts to slip away is our faith. Because our reliance shifts from God's sufficiency to our own sufficiency, right? And and it's interesting the way Jeremiah does this because verse 24 doesn't condemn boasting altogether, it doesn't say don't boast. We had so just be careful there. It's not to say don't boast at all, no, but it reframes it. It reframes it to what that boasting should be about. And we are called to boast. That's the crazy part, just not in ourselves, right? And that's the difference. That's a big shift there. We're supposed to boast in knowing and understanding the Lord, and that's a big radical shift. Instead of spotlighting our own achievements or our own intelligence or our own strength or bank accounts, we're supposed to spotlight what matters most: walking with the living God. Okay, and this doesn't happen by accident, fellas. It happens when we really take the time to prioritize being with him, reading his word, seeking his guidance, applying his truth. And as we do this, you can start to see his hand move in ways uh that reminds us that he is the one who deserves the glory. That's it. And Jeremiah, I love how they this lays out, highlights three attributes of God that he wants us to not only see, but to celebrate and boast about. The first one is God's mercy. His mercy, right? His compassion towards the broken, right? Not getting what we do deserve, right? God's justice is the second thing, his commitment to truth. We serve a just God, right? And what is right. And then his righteousness, his standard of holiness, right? His right standing with him. And these just aren't abstract concepts, fellas. These are the way that he interacts with us. And the cool part is he delights in them, right? Think about that. The creator of the universe takes pleasure in displaying his merch, his mercy, his justice, his righteousness. And he invites us not only to experience them, but to talk about them, to make them the centerpiece of our conversations and our leadership and our influence. And if you're in a position of lead of influence today in leadership, this is somewhat can be viewed as a warning and an invitation. Okay. So the warning is we've talked about it a little bit already, don't build your identity on your own wisdom, might, and riches, because they could come and go, right? The invitation is redirect the boasting. Make it our name, our aim to know God, to understand his character, and to let his mercy, justice, and righteousness be what defines us. Because the world, the last thing we need, fellas, I mean, look at Instagram. We don't need more men boasting about how awesome they are. That is not what we need. Right? It needs men confident enough to boast in the Lord. Hear that? When we do that, our faith grows, our witness becomes stronger, and our leadership reflects something so much greater than us. It reflects Him. So we have to be watchful of where our confidence lies at, fellas. Because it can be so tempting when things are going good to show off, right? To flex off, like and our wisdom, how smart we are, how strong we are, how successful we are. But we got to pause in those moments and instead redirect. Because we need we need to to uh uh recognize that putting that trust and our hope in the Lord, who delights in mercy and justice and righteousness, that type of boasting doesn't just honor God, it frees us from the pressure that we feel as men to prove ourselves and to validate ourselves, and instead it points others to the one who is worth celebrating, guys. And that's what it's all about, fellas. That's what it's all about. And if you don't have that personal relationship with Christ, hey, I just want to take this a minute here just to encourage you in your own journey, in your own walk with Christ. I mean, you've you've heard about the mercy and the justice and the righteousness that we've talked about here today, and now all that's great, but it's available when you have that relationship with God and you have that personal relationship, right? And it and when you start thinking about it, so many guys think that they they're not worthy of that, or so many guys think, you know what, all I gotta do to have that right relationship with God is just be a good person. And I'm just here to tell you that I appreciate you thinking through it that way, but there's errors in your logic. And so many times we have to go back to the beginning, to the creation of what of how God designed everything, right? And then in the beginning, when God made design uh creation and formed Adam, you know, he was speaking everything into existence into existence until it came to Adam, the first man, but he formed him with his hand, and that really just that simple act shows me the personal relationship and and his desire to know us at a deeper level. And just think about when Adam sat up and he was face to face with God, how awesome that moment would have been. And it's just um it rocks you back on your heels when you think about it. So here's Adam and God in the garden. It's awesome. Like there's no sin. And he's literally made in God's image. And the crazy part is so are you, because we're all descendants of Adam. We are. So he's made in God's image, he's in the garden, it goes awesome, it's incredible. For like two pages in my Bible, maybe, maybe a little bit more in yours, depends. Because ultimately, what happened is sin entered the world, and sin is don't overcomplicate it, it's just something that separates us from God. That's it. So that sin fractured that relationship that we have with God, right? So that sin entered the world, and that separated us from Him. So now we have a holy and righteous God and us as sinners. And the problem is we try to close that gap on our own, right? And this is where guys talk about us to just be good a good person or just you know, give money or just you know, uh not break the law, whatever these things are, right? And I'm just here to tell you, man, like the problem with that logic is it it really is it's pulling out of this whole idea of workspace righteousness. And the truth of the matter is there's nothing that we can do to overcome our sin, right? The penalty of sin is death. So there's nothing we can do. Like, you know, it's easy to try to compare ourselves to other people and feel good. Like, again, I live in North Carolina close to a federal prison. If I start thinking about my testimony compared to someone who's on death row's testimony, I'm feeling pretty good about myself if I'm being honest. Right? I haven't killed anybody, and there's there's there's no you know big felonies or anything like that that I've committed. And yet the standard is just wrong. Because instead of comparing myself to that guy on death row, my comparison has to be to a holy and righteous God. And guess what? Every time I compare myself to God, I fall short. I just do. We all fall short of the glory of God. That's what the Bible talks about, right? So that's the big difference is recognizing it's not about comparing myself to my neighbor, but comparing myself to a holy and righteous God, and then fully recognizing that holy wow, like no, I can't, I'm never gonna be good enough, right? I'm not saying don't do good stuff, we'll talk about that in a second, but I'm never gonna be good enough to cover my own sin. So, like, that's a recognition of a fundamental problem we have as people. If I can't cover it myself, what do I do? And and this is where like a lot of people get stuck. What do you do if you can't cover something for yourself? You can't coach yourself up. You need someone to come in and do for you what you can't do. That's where a savior comes in. Okay, this is where Jesus enters the scene for us as believers. So Jesus leaves heaven on a rescue mission for us, was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the teachings, the miracles, all he did all the things to show us, to point us to the proper way. And he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Like Jesus is it, okay? Then he did something that was absolutely incredible. He gave himself up. He sat as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. So they took a Jesus, who never sinned, never did anything wrong, who was the Son of God, and nailed him to a cross, and they they crucified him. And he didn't just go to sleep or pass out or faint or anything like that. No, he died. I mean, they stuck a spear in his side, water came out like Jesus died on the cross. So don't let anybody trip you up there, okay? And then they took him off the cross and they put him in a tomb, okay? And if he stayed there, if the story ends there, then we're showing up every Sunday at church like we're going to a funeral. We're all dressed in black, everybody's crying, right? Because Jesus is dead. That's not what happened. Three days later, after they laid him in a tomb, Jesus rose. He overcame death, he defeated death, right? He walked out of the tomb. And that's the fundamental difference. So the all the other religions of the world, the people that they were, you know, worshiping are still dead. Once they go, they're gone. Jesus is alive. That's the difference. We worship a living Savior. And he ascended to heaven, sits right-handed Father. Again, 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. Guys, it is it. Jesus is the only way. So once we recognize this stuff to be true, you have to come to wrestle with a few things. And the first thing is like, okay, are you truly believing that you are indeed a sinner? That's a big one. This is where lots of guys get hung up. They don't think that they are sinners. No, they're just not sure about this sinner thing. Well, you got to get this one down first. So once you recognize you're a sinner, then you gotta believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Like Jesus is who he said he was, right? So that's another thing you got to wrestle with. Then you have to confess him as Lord because it causes us to do something. Like you can't get to heaven on the faith of your mom or your grandma or your dad or your brother or your cousin. No, this is an independent individual thing, right? I wish I could just say, you know what, Jesus, I'm coming to heaven, I believe in you, and I'm bringing all my loved ones with me because they're with me. Like, just just fight, they're following Chris. It don't work that way. Even my son, I would die for him. He has to make a decision at some point whether or not he's going to choose to surrender Jesus and follow him or not. I pray he does. But it's going to be up to him. He has to make that individual decision, and so do you. You have to make that individual individual decision. I can't make it for you. All I can do is point you to him and then hopefully encourage you to take action. And that's what we're doing right here on the lion. So if you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, today is today. Why not? There's no better day than right now to confess him as Lord and Savior and walk in the newness of life. I mean, it's incredible the freedom that comes. Now, this is not going to get, I'm not saying that you surrender to Christ and things are going to automatically get better. It's not a genie in the bottle. It don't work that way. This is not some prosperity gospel message here. No. Things are still going to be hard, but they will be better because you'll be walking with him. So my encouragement to you, if you've never surrendered your life to him, pray with me right now. I don't care if you're on a treadmill, driving down the road, walking down the street, it doesn't matter. You can accept Christ and invite him into your life today. You don't have to wait till Sunday while you're sitting on a pew. You can do it today. Let's pray together. Father, just thank you so much. We love you. And for that one listener who's just at the end of their rope, they know that their way is not working and they know they need you. I pray you hear their prayer, and I pray, Father, that uh they feel the peace that passes all understanding as as you enter their life. And I just want to just encourage them, Father. Just put people around them that's going to help them in their walk, assist, guide, direct them as they pursue you. We love you, Lord. We praise you. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. All right. So look, if you just accepted Christ, I would love to hear from you. Just so I can give you some encouragement. Uh, Chris at thelionwithin.us is my email. So shoot me, shoot me over an email. I want to give you some encouragement. Got several free resources. I want to help you as you because you just started your own discipleship journey. So congratulations. And also just want to find out if you're in a church. And if you're not, give you some things to look for to get you plugged into the right church. Okay. So we got guys all over the country, all right now, all over the world, kind of. It's kind of crazy. So let me know. Uh, I'd love to connect with you just to come alongside and encourage you during this initial season as you're walking with him. Okay. All right. So, I mean, the question of the week this week is really what most often, uh, what do you most often rather boast about in your life? We've talked about this a lot just in this episode. And my prayer is as we've gone through the scripture, Jeremiah, that that's a little bit of a redirect now to what you want to, what you should be boasting on, and maybe that reframes some of your language that you use, okay? All right. So, guys, hopefully you enjoyed this one. Again, thelionwithin.us is where you find all our resources. Highly encourage you to listen to the next episode. It's gonna be a fun one. It's the guest is very successful businessman, uh, has a tremendous testimony, and I think you'll be blessed by it. Okay. So if you don't mind, head over to thelionwithin.us, give us a uh uh a checkout on some of the things that we're doing there from our daily scripture kickoff to our community to our leadership mastermind. Find us on the Bible app, open the Bible up, find about the Lion Within Us there. Uh, check out our new book, all the different resources we have going out there, fellas. Again, tons and tons of ways we're trying to serve, connect, and just encourage you in your walk with Christ. Okay. So thank you so much. Give us a rating and review if you don't mind. We'll see you next time, fellas. Just keep unleashing the lion within. If you're like me, you don't need another book just sitting around collecting dust. What I enjoy is something to help guide me when my feet hit the ground in the mornings. And that is why we put together Unleashing the Lion Within. It has honest stories, scripture you can apply, and simple steps to help you lead at home, at work, and everywhere in between. So if you've been feeling stuck or scattered lately, you may find this resource encouraging. Read a few pages. Take one step and watch what God does with your obedience. Hey, and if reading's tough for you right now, no problem. The book is also available in Audible version so you can listen on the go. 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