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 spiritual kickoff time. This is a Christmas week as well, so I'm excited to be here with you. Let's get into it, okay? So the scripture of the week is Isaiah 7 14. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name him Emmanuel. All right, guys. Beautiful verse. Obviously, right here, Christmas season. You guys are excited, I'm sure. As we unpack this, let's see how we can simplify and apply this to our life today. Again, we do spiritual kickoffs Monday through Friday. And again, if you're looking, this is the time of year you guys are thinking about New Year's resolutions. And I'm gonna get into the word more. Look, guys, the daily spiritual kickoff. I'm telling you, just do that. That's a free thing you can try this winter, you know, right here at Christmas season. Go to the lionwithin.us, click on that daily spiritual kickoff, get started today with that, okay? All right, let's get into the word. So, where is Isaiah, Old Testament? Kind of get past your Psalms and your Proverbs, then you get this to you know Song of Solomon, and then that's where you're gonna find Isaiah right after that, before Jeremiah. So if you get to Jeremiah, you went a little bit too far, just back up a little bit, okay? So this whole episode, we're just gonna be seeing about this promise fulfilled, right? I love the whole God with us, right? So when Isaiah spoke these words, think about this. Crazy. It's about 700 years before the birth of Christ. 700 years, like seven centuries, okay, before the manger, before the shepherds, before the wise men, uh 700 years. And and God had already declared what would happen and how it was going to happen. And Israel was facing political uncertainty, fear, rebellion. You had this king Ahaz was the guy who ruled Judah at the time, and he doubted God's promise and looked to so many human solutions the way we do, right? For for what? For security, okay? And then all that crazy dark stuff that's happening, God gave a sign through his prophet Isaiah. Okay, that hope was coming, baby. It was coming, and not temporary victory, not a political alliance, no, no, but a savior. And it's it's a sign like no other sign, fellas. It talks about the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. So this is not just poetry, okay. This is revelation given divinely, right? A virgin birth, let's just face it, has never happened before, has never happened since, right? It's in it's absolutely, when you think about it, it's impossible by human standards. And that's exactly the point. God was declaring that this rescue would be 100% all his doing. Okay, so there's no way that we could, as humans, uh intervene here. There's no way we could take credit for it. Only his power could bring forth this miracle. So when she, the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit centuries later, this was fulfilling the prophecy that Isaiah's talking about right here. Okay, not a coincidence. This was the culmination of a plan written before time began, fellas. We have to remember that. The virgin birth speaks of the purity and innocence of Christ, completely born without sin, unstained by the corruption of the world, right? And yet he still chose to come into it. Okay, and he didn't come in as like just this conquering warrior or big political leader, but very humble as a baby, dependent, vulnerable, pure. Just think about babies. Like they are completely reliant. You cannot just leave a newborn, it's not going to survive. And still, he came and he knew what lay ahead. He knew he was gonna be rejected, he knew he was gonna suffer, he was gonna, he knew that he was going to the cross. And I just think the beautiful way Isaiah talks about the child will be called Emmanuel. Just think about what that means. God with us. It's like this is not some metaphor, okay? This is literally, he's the creator of the universe, stepped off his throne from heaven and entered into his own creation. And the same, this is the same God, fellas, who spoke galaxies into existence and he wrapped himself in flesh and walked with us. I'm telling you, it's just crazy. He didn't send an angel, he didn't outsource this to someone else. No, he didn't do it. He came himself, and he lived the life that we couldn't live, and he died the death that we deserve, and he rose again to give us eternal life. That's what Christmas is truly about. God with us so that we could be with him forever. So, man, don't get crossed up on the things of like what the season's all about. It's so easy with all the commercialization and all the different types of money being transferred, and it's different types of uh of events and activities. No, bro, God with us. Because we have to pause and reflect on that reality. And when we pause and reflect, as hard as it is to do this time of year, the noise starts to fade away. Right? So you got Santa Claus and stockings and Christmas trees and light bulbs and all the stuff that's out there, right? And they had their place. I'm not anti that stuff, but none of them compared to the miracle of God becoming man. Okay, I'm just telling you, it just doesn't. Like the Manger wasn't cute, right? It was radical, bro. And it wasn't a story. This is not like recent reading like uh Chronicles of Narnia or something like that. No, this actually happened. It actually happened, and it was a supernatural invasion of grace. So when you when you look at your Christmas tree, look, and you got to guess under it, that that's great. But it's this season is really all about what God did for us on the cross. Says you gather together, and I really want you to gather together, exchange the gifts, celebrate, have a good time. But remember the promise fulfilled. He kept his word right here in Isaiah, 700 years before Christ came. He kept his word because he came. Here's the crazy part he's still with us. He's still with us. And if you don't have that personal relationship with Christ, right, you're missing out on the greatest opportunity for your life, much less just Christmas season. But talk about having a more uh purposeful intent around Christmas celebration. There isn't one than having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So we just talked about the virgin birth and how he came to be, but like even backing up a little bit before that, right? God created this perfect world. So he did. And you and man was made, and we were union. We had a union with God. We were made in his image. It was perfect, and we were in the garden with him. Unbelievable on how this works, on how this happens. And and when we start thinking about that, like we're made in the image of God. So we look in the the mirror, we may not see that this this this uh that we're that we're made like this. We we may not see all the, we may see all the flaws. That's not what God sees. But unfortunately, after shortly after we were God made us in his image, sin entered the world. And that created this chasm and this gap between us and a holy and righteous God. And we can't overcome it on our own. Although we try, and we definitely try, you know, there's lots of trying this time of year in particular, but nothing's gonna come close that gap for us. Because he is holy and righteous, and we're not. We're just sinners in need of a savior. And thankfully, as we just learned here in Isaiah, right, we have a Savior. His name is Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary, who was fulfilled all the prophecies, who did all the teachings, who did all the miracles, showed us the what the path to salvation, and then went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. But it doesn't end there. Yes, he died on the cross, but three days later he rose and he overcame, he defeated death. And that's what we celebrate, a living savior. Just like we're celebrating the birth of our savior this Christmas season, this season, rather, we celebrate a living savior all year round. And that's the hope we have as Christians, bro. And if you don't have that this year, like what are you waiting for? Accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. Ask him to come into your life. Admit that you're a sinner and that you need this, right? Believe that he is a son of God and confess him. So let's just look, if you have you've never done this before, thank you for hanging out and listening. But now's the most important time of the podcast. Now's when we're going to give you a chance to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And I hope you do. I really hope you do, because it's going to change your life forever. So, Lord, one listener, in this Christmas season, they're leaning in, they're curious, Lord, and they found this podcast somehow. I don't know how. And they're hearing you and they're feeling you tug at their heart. I pray that they listen to the call, that they quit being disobedient and that they follow you, Father, that they confess you as Lord and Savior. And I pray it hedge protection around them because the evil one's not going to be happy right now. But I do know, Lord, that with this decision, it's going to change their life. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Look, if you just confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want to hear from you. Send me a note, okay, Chris at the lionwithin.us. Okay. That's the easiest way to get in touch. Love to send you some information to get you started on your discipleship journey, some verses, some resources we've created. And also just be able to jump on and pray with you. I'd love to pray with you and just try to be an encouragement to you as you start your walk with Christ. Okay. So look, question of the week this week is how are you going to share the true meaning of Christmas this year? Okay, how are you going to do it? Are you just going to not, right? And just focus just on the activities, right? And the activities are fun. I want you to have a lot of fun with it, okay? But I really want you to not miss the true meaning in the season. And hopefully, just hopefully, with this what, 10-minute little podcast, this is what we are able to share with you today, okay? So look, we are going to have a um special Christmas episode. Okay. It's going, it's coming out. It's on our standard meat episode this week. So it's going to come out. It's going to be a little bit different, okay? Not going to have any guests. Not going to be a do, I'm not doing a deep reflection on on trying to simplify and apply the word. All I'm going to simply do is share the word with you. And hopefully, just that's going to be a little encouragement to you during this Christmas week, okay? Because I know this time of year can be challenging for lots of people. So if anything, I the only thing I know I can comfort you with is not from me. It's from God. And it's his word. So that's what we're going to do on the podcast this week. All right, guys. So look, thelionwithin.us, that's how you connect with us. The Bible app. Connect with us there on the Bible app. Podcast, we're on YouTube, Instagram, all the social stuff, which we're not very good at, but we have all that stuff out there, guys. Connect with us on those resources. Unleashing the Lion Within, our book. Get a copy of that. And guys, if we can reach encourage you in any way, please just reach out and let us know. All right. Guys, have a great day. Get after it. We'll see you next time. Merry Christmas. And 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. So if this sounds interesting, check out thelionwithin.us slash book or search for unleashing the lion within directly on Amazon. So there's no pressure here, just a resource that many guys are finding helpful. So grab the format that fits and take your next step.