Chris Grainger: 1:43

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 get into it. Okay. So the scripture of the week this week, Luke chapter 6, 40th verse. Okay. It says a student is not above the teacher, but everyone, when he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. Okay? That's the verse. That's the whole verse. We're going to see how we can unpack this so we can simplify and apply it to our life as Christian men, fellas. Okay. Now again, we do this Monday through Friday at The Lion Within Us. It's called a daily spiritual kickoff. So if you enjoy these in the least, head over to thelionwithin.us, click on daily spiritual kickoff and get started with that today for free. Like we give that away, fellas. It gives you access to our prayer request board as well. But the main thing, it gets you access to our app to get you into the platform to be encouraged on a daily basis. That's it. If you don't get anything but just a little encouragement every day, that's what it's all about, fellas. You can have a chance. I go live every morning. You can be part of the it's it's not pre-recorded or anything like that. It's just it's live with all the flaws, all the mishaps, all the mistakes, all the ums, all the like I'm not sure the mispronounced words, like it's just there, fellas, in the raw. So the lionwithin.us is where you find it. Hopefully you find a little bit of encouragement along the way, okay? So this scripture is in the book of Luke, and we need to know where the book of Luke is. We're not gonna assume anything here on the line. You know what happens when you assume, right? So we're just we're not gonna do that. So that's in the new test, your New Testament, that's part of the gospels. You got Matthew, Mark, Luke, then John. Okay, so if you get to the gospel of John, you went a little bit too far, all right? So that's where you're gonna find it. And this week we're gonna be talking about apprenticeship. We talk about discipleship all the time, but our guests this week really made me start thinking a little bit differently about this, about the whole idea of being an apprentice, right? And learning the craft, right? And we're supposed to learn the craft, especially of following Christ, right? So uh that's a big deal. And I don't know about you, if you've ever trained anyone underneath someone like a technician or a coach or a craftsman, uh, the apprenticeship is not just about the information they can give you. Like you can go to YouTube right now and learn as much as you want, right? About any given craft, right? Whatever it may be. I grew up in an electrical field, so in electrical, that's that's typically how you do it. You you learn under people, right? And I learned underneath my dad, who taught me all these different things, right? But that's that's hands-on, right? It's about imitation. You know, you don't just learn what they know, you learn how they live it, right? How they how they exemplify this skill. And and Jesus is teaching right here. He's like, look, a student is not above the teacher, but everyone he has been fully trained will be like his teacher. He was giving us a picture right here in that one little verse of apprenticeship. Okay, and that's a life that we build on walk watching, practicing, failing, quite frankly. We better, we've got to fail a lot. Then we've got to get up, dust ourselves off, we've got to try again. But we we do that under the patient guidance of the the quote, the quote unquote the master, right? And and in the industrial trade, you even hear it called the master, you call it the apprentice, you know, it it that that type of vernacular is still out there. But uh it's it's just getting mixed. It's just it's getting missed rather, uh, because uh when we talk about discipleship in church circles, it can very it can feel somewhat distant at times or or overly spiritualized, where apprenticeship, what I appreciate about that word, it just brings it back down to where we're at. Like right, we're right here, you know, learning the trade of godliness. So, how we're gonna live this out, how we're gonna use that to lead, how we're gonna use that to serve others just as Christ did. And so let's think about this for just for a few minutes. Is what does apprenticeship, why does that even stinking matter? Because apprenticeship assumes uh one thing that every one of us needs to embrace. Okay, and here and here's the earth shadowing peace, fellas. Are you teachable? Okay, are you teachable? And I, quite frankly, have struggled in some areas of my life to be teachable, and I've had to recognize that and work on that. And a teachable person is fertile grow soil for growth, right? But too many dudes, we just get stuck in a fixed mindset, okay, believing that we know enough, we've done enough, we've proven ourselves enough, and to change that, that's for somebody else. That ain't for me. But the truth is, following Christ requires us to put ourselves in a posture of openness, okay? Because the Holy Spirit is ultimately instructor, fellas. He is, right? So if we resist his connection, uh or his correction rather, and we start trying to quench what he's trying to tell us to do, or if we start ignoring his guidance, guess what? We're gonna stop growing. An apprenticeship to Jesus means that we have to show up every day ready to learn. It's acknowledging out the gate every day, I haven't mastered this God, but I'm willing, I'm willing and want to be shaped by you and by you alone, by no one else, but by you alone, right? That's it. Now, for dudes, please hear me this. Like, think about to like if you when you learned a skill set. Maybe let me go back to maybe some of you guys have worked in construction, okay? You didn't just walk up to the job site on day one and figure this stuff out. No, I remember back in the the early days of of the electrical work, people trying to mess with you about trying to find a wire stretcher, right? Things like that. You know, things just you you just you you you like to mess with people on just because it's it's part of their learning process. And we have to learn this, we have to remember this. Training takes time. Nobody's gonna become a craftsman overnight. If they do if they say they are, they're lying to you, okay? Because I can tell you, when it starts to like, when I go back, I I did some some panel uh wiring back in the day. Those first few panels were a dumpster fire.

unknown: 8:00

Okay.

Chris Grainger: 8:01

I remember as well, like being a mechanic working on a race car, some of the things I did at the gate were were just completely wrong. But it takes time, it takes practice, it takes repetition, right? And when we, as we're growing in our walk in Christ, we're gonna learn how to pray, right? Not just to say prayers, but actually communicate with the Father. Uh, when we start maturing, reading scripture, we recognize we're not reading it for information. We're just but we're reading it, reading it to be transformed, right? And when we uh our shape of what we uh apply, then all of a sudden we start walking it out, okay, because we've learned it. Now we apply it, and now that's showing up in our homes and well, maybe at work or anywhere else in our community, right? And Jesus kind of showed us this rhythm of like listening, obeying, and living, right? Listen, obey, live over and over and over with that connection with the front with the Father and this apprenticeship idea has the same pattern, right? And think about it now, what you're really good at. I guarantee you right now, like for you guys, it's just second nature. I think about like for me, I'm teaching my oldest to drive. She's doing a pretty good job. But I have to recognize for her, some of these things that I just naturally inherently do, turn signals or or or you know, slowing and merging into traffic, whatever these things are behind the wheel, I'm it's just second nature to me now. If you guys have driven for any period of time, you know what I'm talking about. But for her, this is a learning period. This is where lots of these habits and these different types of actions are being formed. It's the same way with our walk of Christ. So maybe you've just got your learners, okay? You just accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. Great. Now's the time to learn. And there's blessing in the process, fellas, because the reward of apprenticeship is not just to be comfortable all the time. No, it's to be like Christ-like. Because again, Luke tells us right here, when we are fully trained, we're going to be like the teacher. And that's the goal. That is the goal, fellas. And this whole process of sanctification, right, is a long process of being more and more like Christ. Right? It's not just avoiding sin, it's about developing our character, our nature, our compassion, and our the courage that God wants us to have. So we have to embrace this mindset of apprenticeship, right? And if we do, things are going to start changing and shifting up. We're going to find ourselves that we we're going to stop trying to control too many doggone outcomes. And then at the same time, we'll trust the process more, right? Because if we stop chasing perfection and start pursuing presence, that's when things shift up. And over time, I promise you, over time, if you just stay committed to this, the fragments of who we were to begin with are going to start aligning to who more and more to who God's called us to be. And bro, that's a big deal. That's a game changer. Because at the end of the day, being an apprentice for Christ isn't some glamorous thing. It's it's gritty. It takes grit to do this. We're gonna have to fail a lot, but learn from those failures. We're gonna have to serve a lot. We're gonna have to keep that heart of surrender going all at the same time. But here's the deal that sounds like a lot. It's the most freeing thing you'll ever experience. Because when we yield to Christ's training, we begin to experience the peace that passes all understanding and the power that only we can find while walking closely with Him. I'm just gonna we've got to ask ourselves right now a question of a week. What's one area where you have stopped being teachable? And I don't know what that answer is for you. I just know for pretty much a hundred percent of the guys that they're listening, there is some area in your life right now where you do not think you are teachable. Be careful. Be careful, because we don't see that modeled in our walk of Christ. Okay, and again, we have to be on the goal of not just knowing about Jesus, but being an image bearer to where people see that in us. And what a noble goal to have, fellas. So hopefully you find some encouragement in this one little verse, and now you can hopefully simplify and apply it to your life. Now again, this freedom of coming with Christ and this this this this this life abiding in him is only possible if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And I'm not naive enough to think that everyone who listens to the line within us has done that. So if you haven't done that, if you haven't accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is a day. And here's an opportunity for you listening to a podcast. For some reason you clicked on this podcast, you've listened this far through, and you're still here. Well, I encourage you to just keep listening. Because you need to understand at the very beginning, when God created the world, he made us as image bearers. And our and our guest on Wednesday is going to talk about this, about uh being made in image and how we should be pursuing that. Uh, he talks about several things that I just think were so impactful. But he talks about really the union with Christ, abiding, obeying, and imaging. And I just want to take you back to the very beginning. When God formed Adam, the very first man, he was, it's the Bible says we were made in his image. So when you look in a mirror, okay, you may see some jacked-up flaw person, but God sees you exactly the way he designed you to be. And he wants to have that union with you. And things were great, really, with Adam in union with God, in the garden, chilling, hanging out, doing stuff with God, right? It was really wonderful for like two pages, bro. And then sin came in, and that separated, that fractured that union, right? Where we have a holy and righteous God, and we have us as sinners. Okay, and and and there's been this this try that so many guys do over millennia, really, where we just try to overcome that gap of sin in our life by just trying to do good and be good enough and just do all these things, whether it's praying or reading your Bible or helping people or giving money or whatever it may be. And we're trying to earn favor with God. And unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way.

unknown: 14:27

Right?

Chris Grainger: 14:27

I mean, you don't want you to do good things because you're you're have a love of God, but we we we we misinterpret when we start thinking that those things are earning any sort of of right standing with Him. No, it just doesn't work that way. You know, sin is simply something that separates us from God. That's it. And it and some and there's I get it, many people don't think they sin anymore, but guess what? You ain't struggling, brother, you're sinning. And that's a problem. And we got to take care of this. We can't keep playing with sin like we can control it, like we can manage it. You know, because at some point that's that sin is gonna become so big, it's just gonna overtake you. And that's gonna impact you as a man and your ability to really do what God's calling you to do. So this sin is a big deal. When God stopped playing with it like it's a pet snake and wonder why we get bit. So if we got this, we're we recognize a couple things. We're made in the image of God, for sure. We have this sin that has entered into the world that we live in. Unfortunately, it's just here. It's a fallen world. Nobody, I don't think anybody's gonna argue with me on that. It's a fallen world that we live in, right? And there's nothing we can do about it ourselves to overcome the sin that we have. Okay, so we we can't uh uh earn it on our own. So what do we need to do? Well, we need someone to step in and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. And this is where Jesus comes into the scene because he leaves heaven on a mission to save you and me. This is what he did. He was born of the virgin, he fulfilled all the prophecies, he did all the teachings, he did all the miracles. Jesus legit 100% showed us that he is the Messiah, he is the savior that the world's been waiting for. Fellows, I don't know about you, but I want to hook my horse to my wagon to that one because I want to follow him. And that's it. So then he went to the cross, he did the ultimate for us. He didn't just live a perfect life, which he did. He went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sins by dying. He was pierced for our transgressions, fellas. The Bible talks about that. So he literally died on the cross. Now the story doesn't end there, or else we would just be worshiping a dead guy. And lots of other religions do that, but that doesn't make sense to me. So that so what happened was they laid Christ in a tomb, they sealed up the tomb, but it was more like an Airbnb for Jesus, okay, because he just needed it for a few days. Because in three days, he overcame death, he defeated death, and he the tomb is empty. That's a big deal. Like the resurrection, between the virgin birth and the resurrection, they are two of the most massive things that ever happened in the history of humanity. And we have to believe them to be true and recognize them because Jesus showed up, he didn't just walk out the temple, the uh tomb, sorry, and just went straight to heaven. No, he showed himself over a period of 40 days to hundreds of people. So there was no question, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus defeated death. And that is who we worship, a living Savior. And to the point, his disciples, all except John, when she was exiled, might as well say he was was was martyred for his death. They were they all went to their death proclaiming Christ as Messiah. And I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna die for something that I don't 100% believe in. Like it has to be 100%. And not only that, it was all of them. All of them went to their grave confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior. So you have a choice you have to make right now. Okay, when you're listening to me, so at this point, you've heard the gospel, you know that uh you are a sinner and needy of a savior. At least I hope you do. You recognize there is sin in your life. It may be big, it may be small, it doesn't matter. Every whatever it is that has separated you from God, you recognize that you can't do anything about it on your own, so you need you need a savior. Hopefully, you believe in your heart that Jesus is that savior. He is the Messiah, sent to take away the sin of the world. Then you have to take action. This is where it trips up, man. This is where it gets tricky. Because I can't do this for you. Your mom, your dad, your your wife, your grandparents, your kids, they can't. This is a decision you have to make whether or not you're going to surrender your life to the Lordship in Jesus Christ or not. You don't have to. That's the crazy part. He wants you to, but you don't have to. He gives you the opportunity to make this decision. And maybe you're at the point in your life where things just haven't been going your way, and you recognize that you know what? Things are just missing. And I don't know. I I can't keep doing this my way, because my way has just been, quite frankly, a dumpster fire. If that's where you are, then maybe that's exactly where Jesus needed to take you to recognize that you don't got this. You need him. And that starts with confessing him as Lord and Savior of your life. And you can do that right now, listening to the podcast. I'm getting ready to pray here in one second. And if you're ready to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, what better time to do it than right now? You don't have to be sitting in a church pew after uh some wonderful sermon. It could be right here. You could be on a treadmill, you could be in a trail, you could be in your car, you could be in a bathroom. I don't know where you're at listening to the line right now, but I know one thing if Jesus is calling you and the Holy Spirit is is is nudging you, stop ignoring it. It's time to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and then experience the peace that passes all understanding so that you can start abiding and obeying and walking in Christ, walking with Christ rather, so that you can recognize that you are made in the image of God. So look, let's pray together for that one listener. I'm telling you, I don't know who you are, but I know that God's talking to you right now. It's time to stop ignoring it. So, Father, I just want to pray for that one person right now. It's just that they're in a difficult season. And you brought them to this difficult season for one purpose alone, to recognize that they need you. So I pray that in this moment that uh that they see and understand that they have limits. We all have physical limits and mental limits, but you are you're without those. And I pray that you hear their prayer, I know you hear their prayer, but I pray that they just confess you as Lord and Savior right now. And as they're inviting you to be the Lord and Savior of their life, that the Holy Spirit is now doing a mighty work in them. And I just pray a special hedge protection around them, God, because now they're gonna be under the attack of the evil one. I know they are. The evil one's not happy right now with this decision that they're making. But I just want to speak life, speak encouragement into them as they begin their discipleship journey, Father. I pray you put people around them that will protect them, that will guide them, that will not be the wolf in sheep's clothing, but will be genuine disciples of you. Who will help encourage them in their walk with you, Father? So we love you. We praise you. We do all this according to your will in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So look, you just accepted Christ. Like, touch now. This is, I'm telling you, this is the most excited I get for the lion every week. It's just sharing the gospel. And I get messages from time to time where guys are taking action. And by far, they are the most impactful emails I ever get by far. So I'd love to hear from you. Okay. If you just accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, let me know. I got a bunch of resources. Like I just want to give them to you, get you connected with them. I also want to walk alongside if you need support finding a church, knowing what to look for in a church. You know, how do you get connected with a body of believers in your discipleship journey? We want to help you with that. So just send me an email, okay? It's Chris. I'm just going to give my straight-up email, Chris, and that's C-H-R-I-S at the LionWithin. And it's not.com, it's dot us. Okay, so thhelionwithin.us. Send me an email. I'd love to get hear from you, get connected, and we'll get you those resources away. Okay. So guys, come back on Wednesday. We've got a really good conversation. I think you're going to enjoy this one a lot. Also, the LionWithin.us is where you can connect with us on all our resources from the 50 plus uh studies we have on the Bible app. We have our daily spiritual kickoff, which we've already talked about. We have our lion thin community. Start your 30-day free trying to lions den community, guys. What are you waiting on? And also put in an application for the leadership mastermind. Grab a copy of Unleashing to Lion Within, our book, guys. Lots and lots of ways we serve. Okay. All of it's found at the Don't forget the T H E LionWithin.us. Again, it's not.com, it's dot US. All right, fellas. So we'll see you next time. Again, thank you for listening. You can go to LionWithin.us slash donate if you want to support the show with what we're doing. You're finding some encouragement along the way. You want to be a monthly supporter from$5 to$5,000. Whatever you want to send us, fellas, it would definitely go a long way to help us keep doing this work that hopefully will encourage you in your discipleship journey. All right. So guys, have a great day. Get after it. If you need anything, just reach out. Keep on leashing the lion within. Trying to find genuine resources to help grow spiritually can feel overwhelming. At least it was for me. For the longest time, the support that I was looking for didn't exist. And I knew I wasn't alone. And at the same time, God was leading me to take action. That's why we built the Lion Within Us Community, which is simply a place for Christian men to grow together in an honest, practical way that's always rooted in God's Word. We've made it simple. We have our daily spiritual kickoff for that little boost to get you going. We have Bible studies focusing on discerning truth and applying it. And we have a private forum where you can speak freely amongst other guys who listen. And then we have things like Friday Forge, Couples Night, where we tackle the hard items that guys are craving to talk about, but most face settings just refuse to explore these areas. So our community is about a growth mindset, intentionality, and transparency. Simply put, leave the mask at the door and come as you are. No perfect resume, just a willing heart and a desire to lead. I believe in what we've built simply because I've seen God use it to strengthen so many men. And I'd be honored to walk alongside you. So if you're ready, visit thelionwithin.us to explore the community. Start your free trial. Look around and see how this could help you lead with clarity and courage. So your journey begins here at thelionwithin.us. I look forward to seeing you inside the den.