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, meet episode time. Let's get into it, okay? So the scripture of the week this week is Romans 5, verses 7 and 8. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We all know verse 8, but verse 7 is what gets left out. And I just think seven just gives you so much more impact when you get to verse 8, fellas. So anyway, if you guys enjoyed that verse, if you want to unpack that verse more in depth, go ahead to the spiritual kickoff episode. It'd be one back in your podcast feed. I took some time to unpack that at length. And again, if you enjoy the spiritual kickoff episodes each week, how about getting it Monday through Friday for free, fellas? We do it Monday through Friday within the Lion Within Us community. It's called the Daily Spiritual Kickoff. It's a great way to get connected with us and what we're doing, how we try to serve. It gives you access to our app. We even give you access to our prayer request board within the Lion Within Us. So if you've got prayer requests that are on your heart, guys, we got you covered there. Okay. So head over to thelinewithin.us. Get started with your daily spiritual kickoff today. All right. Now, this was going to be a fun one. This is JD Walt. We brought him in. He's a pastor of the Gillette Methodist Church in Gillette, Arkansas. Just a fun dude, lots of energy. He's a singer. We talk about country music and singing and honky tonks and Jesus and sin. I'm telling you, it's just a fun conversation. He has a thing called the Wake Up Call, fellas. That's part of his what he puts out each and every day. He just spends time with God every morning. He puts that out in a podcast format. So go check out the wake up call as well. His book is phenomenal. We talk uh at length about that today in this conversation. Romans from sin management to love unleashed. Just a fun guy, lots of energy out of Arkansas, four kids. Guys, you're not going to be disappointed. So enjoy this conversation with my friend, JD Walt. Well, JD, welcome to The Line Within Us. How are you doing today?

J.D. Walt: 3:41

Thank you, Chris. I'm doing pretty good. It's um good to be good to be on this with you.

Chris Grainger: 3:47

Oh man, I'm excited for it for sure. I mean, let's before we get into it though, I always like to start off the episodes with something fun about you that maybe not many people know about them. You got a lot of content out there, but what's something that's maybe not as well known about you, JD?

J.D. Walt: 4:01

Yeah, well, what's not maybe as well known about me is that uh I I got a country band.

Chris Grainger: 4:09

Okay.

J.D. Walt: 4:10

Okay. It's called JD and the Dukes. Okay. Well, we can't just leave it there. Tell us about this one. It's uh, you know, it's just a it's a crazy story. One of my early Dukes in the band was Chris Tomlin, okay? Okay. So yeah, he he I used to way back before he was Chris Tomlin, we worked together at a church in Texas. And, you know, he was just a small town guy from Grand Celine, Texas, home of the Morton salt mine. And we were, I was a preacher at this church, and he was the worship leader. This is like 1990, late 1900s, you know.

Chris Grainger: 4:54

There you go.

J.D. Walt: 4:55

And um anyway, I knew when I first saw him, I'm like, this this guy's special.

Chris Grainger: 5:04

Yeah.

J.D. Walt: 5:05

And he went on to be become Chris Tomlin. I and I tell people I'm still JD Walt. But JD and the Dukes, JD and the Dukes was this, this is way back in the late 80s. Okay. I was I was in college and and we were uh this is right at the very advent of karaoke. Okay, okay. Right when it started. And the only place in town, the first place that came was the Ramada Inn Lounge. We used to go out there on the weekends and just get in line and get ready to sing. And that's where my country uh, that's where my country band was born, JD and the Dukes. Okay, now you got time for a quick story. Let's go. This is a fun one. Okay. So I found myself up in Branson, Missouri, um, which is a couple miles north of a couple a couple hours north of Fayetteville. We were at this uh wedding I was in, and we went afterwards from the rehearsal dinner to this honky tonk in town called the Wildwood Flower.

Chris Grainger: 6:10

Okay.

J.D. Walt: 6:11

And it was just a true country music dance hall. Okay.

Chris Grainger: 6:14

You know, it was line dancing, all that, right?

J.D. Walt: 6:16

Two-step in line dancing, and they had a full band, steel guitar, all of it, backup singers. And and so as I was in there, I was just walking around visiting, and somebody came up to me, and I just started talking to them. And they said, Well, so so what do you do? I said, Well, I sing Country and Western. I got a band called JD and the Dukes. And they and they carried on a little bit, a few minutes, they came back and they had a guy with them, big guy, tall cowboy hat on. He said, I hear you're Country Western singer. He said, Would you like to sing tonight? I said, Absolutely. I didn't think anything else about it. Time passed. The band took a break. They're back up there warming up. This guy steps up on stage. I'm sitting over there with my friends. He said, Ladies and gentlemen, we got a country western singer from Arkansas tonight, JD Walt. He's got a band called JD and the Dukes, and the Dukes can't be with him tonight, but he's gonna come up here and sing one. Our band's gonna back him up. Come on up here, JD. I'm like, oh my gosh, my friend, what are you doing? And so I start walking to the stage, Chris, and I'm thinking, what song do I know every word to? Right. Because this ain't karaoke. This is not karaoke. And so I get up on the stage, and the band, the lead guitar guy, says, What do you want to play? I said, uh you guys know the gambler. There you go. And then he said this, he said, Yes, sir. What key do you want to do? And I said, Come down here. And I said, And he said, Gambler and C. And we just rocked it, and it was the funniest thing I'd ever done in my life to date and since. Wow. But I mean, it was packed out, people were dancing, and I people asked me for my business card, and that's where JD and the Dukes were born, and then Chris Tomlin later became one of the Dukes. We'd play at birthday parties there in the wood in our church.

Chris Grainger: 8:42

That is so cool, JD. So you were the so you didn't play a musician, you were the singer. I was the singer. Okay, okay.

J.D. Walt: 8:50

And I can fake it till I make it with a guitar, but right, right. But uh that's what people don't know about me, and I use that story to talk about the three stages of of maturity as a man. Okay. And I say back in those days, there was a there was a band out there called Millie Vanilli. Do you remember Millie Vanilli? Oh, yeah. Well, I remember what they're known for. But yeah. Exactly. Okay, Millie Vanilli. I mean, just phenom dance acts, singers, and one day they're on stage and their music starts skipping. Yep. And it turns out they're lip syncing. And I'm like, you know what, that's kind of phase one of I wouldn't call it manhood, I'd call it boyhood trying to become a man. Lip syncing. Just really trying to skip steps. Right. Right? Right. To to sort of try to get there without doing the work. Lip syncing. And and then karaoke is training wheels. You got the words, you got the melody. But manhood is taking the leap. It's taking the risk. You've done the backstage work, and one day you just gotta step up to the mic and sing. Love it. Love it. And uh yeah, you you don't want to be a lip syncer. You can karaoke for a little while, but ultimately you gotta take the mic and sing the song you were put on the earth to sing. You know, it reminds me, Chris, of uh Thoreau quote. He says, and I know you've heard this one, most men lead lives of quiet desperation. And they go to their grave with the song still in them. Right? That hits you, bro. That's it. We know about that, don't we? We do, and we're put here to sing the song. Now you doing any singing still? You know, it's crazy. This isn't I I mean, I've written songs and country songs and worship songs, and but every single day on my podcast, and I hope I I hope some men will jump in on this with us, it's called the wake-up call. Every day I I I teach on the Bible, and at the end I sing a hymn.

Chris Grainger: 11:56

Okay.

J.D. Walt: 11:57

A hymn. We got to get back to the hymns. I love the new songs, but the old songs are better. And I see, and I and I tell every day, I'm like, guys, I'm I'm not a singer, I'm a worshiper, and you are too. And I look out in my church, I pastor a little church in this tiny town I live in, farm country. I'm from a farm, and I see men, and they're not singing. They're just they're not even mumbling or mouthing the words. And I'm like, why aren't you singing? And and some people are like, Well, I'm not a singer, I'm like, I'm not either. We're worshipers, we're made to sing. That word sing, I wish I had a count of how many times it's in the Bible. But there's something about singing that lifts the human spirit to God. It does. Yes, sir. And um these hymns, you know, it's if you're gonna if you're gonna have your faith, you gotta sing your faith.

Chris Grainger: 13:08

Amen.

J.D. Walt: 13:09

And so I sing every single day a hymn. And my dad, okay, a lot of days. My dad is up in his 80s, he's he's a farmer, you know. He's losing his memory, his health is failing. But he'll sit right here with me, and he'll come alive when we start singing. He sings with me, these hymns. Wow. And it's so powerful, it's so human, it's so often bad us singing together. Yeah, but it's riveting. Right. And other times I try to get my son, third generation, fair enough, and just grandfather, son, grandson. Right. And we'll sing the hymn together. Wow. And uh, how old is your son? My son is 25. Okay, and he's he's come down here to Gillette. I'm sitting here in this this wall is usually full of art that he's made. He's a leather craftsman and a metal worker, and a painter. He's a remarkable kid. I call him, he's a Bezalil, you know, from uh first person in the Bible filled with the Holy Spirit was an artist, Bezalil, the temple, the tabernacle. That's cool. In Exodus.

Chris Grainger: 14:28

But well, JD, I love it. Just pick your brain a little bit as well on you know what led you to writing this particular book on Romans. It's a powerful book in the Bible, probably one of the many favorites out there, but man, this this is a deep study, obviously, a lot of time. So what led you to focusing in here?

J.D. Walt: 14:47

Well, on my on my wake-up call every day, I'm just I'll pick a book of the Bible and I just start and I go verse by, I don't go one verse a day, but a few verses a day. This one actually wound up taking me like 90 days, I think. And and so I you know, Romans, I had steered away from it just because it's so apparently challenging and dense and thick. And um finally I'm like, it's time. Let's dive into Romans and see what we can learn. And I my gosh, I learned so much. Um Chris, it it was I don't know, it took me 15 weeks or so to do it.

Chris Grainger: 15:39

Yeah, I mean, I love how you call it from sin management to love unleash. Like how to get walk as to how God gave you that.

J.D. Walt: 15:47

Well, you know, I I have I I would say my message, if I had to say, what is your message? Like, what is the big idea that you're bringing? You know, like your big idea is no house cats, all lines. I love it. Like grow up. That's right. Let's go. My my message is wake up, grow up, light up, right? Ephesians 5.14. And what I have found in my experience personally and in my work and across the church with people is that most people will go halfway with you, but they won't go the other half. They're what I call first half of the gospel, which is good, but it's just not enough. I'm about the second half of the gospel. And if we were to say the first half of the gospel is Lord, you took me out of Egypt. The second half of the gospel is now take Egypt out of me. It's actually growing up. First half of the gospel's waking up. Second half of the gospel is growing up. And actually becoming a Christian, right? I feel like it's weak, there's so many Christians, we got to actually help become Christians, that they're they're stuck, arrested in their development. And they're just keep, they just keep making the same loop. And so, you know, we've we've got to help people. The second half of the gospel begins with what I call holy discontent. It's like, I know there's got to be more than I'm getting, and I'm not okay with it anymore. My level of discontent has reached a level at which I'm I'm no longer gonna blame it on everything outside of me, and I'm gonna ask the question, Lord, what are you wanting to do inside of me? Holy discontent. That leads to a place really often of brokenness, which is the realization that, you know what, there's there's something broken in me, and it explains a lot of the patterns of my life and the stuckness that I feel. And I've come to realize this is this is what we've come to realize in our work is that we we don't really have a content problem in the church, we have a connection problem. We don't have the kind of relationships it takes to sustain real transformation. And that's why we're stuck. We have some connections to people, but we don't have real relationships. And so two other men and I back in 2015 we said, let's let's try together to go deeper because we're we've only gone as far as we're gonna go by ourselves in the sort of loose connection we call church, the loose ties, right? We need some strong bonds. And we we learn from kind of our forefather in the church of which we're a part, the Methodist world, which unfortunately is has been a desecrated brand, you know, over the last hundred years. But before that, my gosh, one of the greatest movements in church history, ultimately the only movement, greatest church planting movement in North America, planted a church in every county in America, never been done. Francis Asbury came, you know, 26-year-old raised his hand. Wesley said, Who will go to the New World? Francis Asbury, 26, came here. And uh quarter of a million miles later, and 18 horses later, and 46 years later, there were 250,000 Methodists, and there were churches moving all over the country, a full 25% African-American members of that movement. And I can digress on this, but I'm like, it's time to get back on the horse, Methodists. And we we do now have a new church that's afoot uh that's broken away from really what was an apostate church that we suffered with for so long and bore with and tried to renew. But um one of John Wesley's practices that he pioneered, he learned it from a place called Hernhut in Germany. It's called banding. A banding, right? And if we started with a band, right? And so we created this t-shirt that says, Ask me about my band. And of course, am I gonna tell them about the dukes or am I gonna tell them about these three men that we that's that's my other band? So, Chris, we we studied his model and his movement, and we said, This doesn't exist now. And so we create, we we we we didn't just copy it because it it we didn't want to create an antique model for a new century. We wanted to be true to what he was trying to do, which was help people. Move into the second half of the gospel, become a real Christian. And so we we came up with five questions, again, inspired by his movement. And it's you either got to be all-men group or all-women group. It's not an inter, you know, it's not mixed.

Chris Grainger: 22:02

And hey, before you go to those questions, let's take a quick break and we'll come right back and we'll ask those questions. We'll be right back, guys. 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. All right, JD. So you you you left us here with these five questions that are going to make a big impact. So let's go.

J.D. Walt: 23:21

I mean, okay. Question one How is your soul? Right? It's like a locator question. How are you doing on the inside? What's going on? Like, and really, this just more of like a I you can use a metaphor like is it like the weather, right? Everybody knows how to talk about the weather, but nobody knows how to talk about their soul. I'm like, what's the weather inside? Is it is there a gale, force, wind? Is it a sunny day? Is it partly cloudy? Just begin to tell us to locate yourself, right? First question God asks Adam is what? Where are you? In Genesis. Amen. Genesis three. Where are you? Yes, sir. He thought he was hiding, but you don't hide from God. God just gives you the benefit of the doubt by asking you, just giving you a chance to tell the truth. Let him love you. So, how is your soul? Second question: what are your struggles and successes since we last met? This is a group, this is not a Bible study group. We're assuming, and you can't assume it, we're pushing you to definitely be in the Word of God. But the curriculum here is not a book, it's not a study, it's your life. Your life is the curriculum. So, what are you struggling with? Where have you been successful? And that's just a chance to just to sort of talk about your life and what's going on, and how about your marriage? And what about your secret thoughts? And what about your work and your kids? And where are you winning? Where are you losing? What's good? What's hard? You know? That's the second question. Third question: how's God speaking? What's God saying? How's the scripture speaking? What are you sensing from the Spirit of God? And that's a chance to respond to that question. And you know, oftentimes you were moving so fast, we you just need that weekly or bi-weekly check-in, even to ask yourself and to deal with the answer. So that's there's that one. How's God speaking? And again, in this moment, nobody else can talk. You know, we created some guidelines that we've learned various places, respect the clock, you know, no crosstalk, only one counselor, the Holy Spirit. We're not we're not trying to solve each other's problems. We're creating the space where a person can over time become vulnerable, which is just simply saying here, this is the real me. And that takes trust. It takes time and trust. That's what our equation is time multiplied by trust equals transformation. And so how's God speaking? And we don't have anybody else at that moment doesn't come in and say, here's what I hear God saying. That's not what we're doing right now. The fourth question, and we find questions four and five are often what scare men away and they keep men from doing this. And so we say, listen, just go with questions one through three until you're ready for four and five. It's challenge by choice. That's one of our guidelines. It's like nobody's pushing you here. You're pushing yourself. Question four, is there any sin you want to confess? And we say, you know what, we're not confessing sin for pardon here. We're confessing sin in the James 4.8, I believe it is, which says, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Right? We can confess our sins to God and we must, but if we're just confessing our sins to God, we got an uncanny way of taking them back. And we don't really heal. Sin is devastation, it's sickness. We we got it trapped in a moral category of sort of righteousness and unrighteousness. And Jesus, I ain't come for that. I came for the sick. Sin is sickness. It's one of the things I learned in Romans so much. And that we spend most of our life not understanding what sin is. We can talk about that in a minute, but we think that sin is bad behavior. I'm like, no, it's cancer. It's cancer, you got it. Maybe it's lung cancer because you smoke two packs a day. Maybe it's colon cancer and nobody knew it. You just presented at stage four. Maybe you're the younger brother in the prodigal son, maybe you're the older brother who nobody knew. But cancer is real and you have it. You were born with it, and there's only one cure, and it's a hundred percent cure rate. That's the grace of God. His name is Jesus, his blood is the chemotherapy. That's the only way you're gonna get out of it. What we consequently do is treat the symptoms. We treat the symptoms of the cancer with over-the-counter medication, and we wind up in Romans 7, which is I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I do want to do, and I don't understand this, and we call that the Christian life, and it's not the Christian life. Romans eight is the Christian life. And we trap, we're trapped in Romans 7, first half of the gospel, doom loop, right? You got to break free, you got to come to that place where Paul, in even at the end of Romans 7, he's like, Who can save me? He's he's at holy discontent. And then he and he shifts over now, there's therefore now no condemnation, right? For those who are he's breaking open the door of the second half of the gospel, and you've got to get to a place where you can't tolerate the gap between who God's calling you to be and who you're stuck in being. And it takes some men a long time to get there, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. You've got, and this is why a band, the reason you're stuck is you don't have the kind of relationships it takes to get unstuck and to sustain real transformation. And so that's why that sin question is important in due course. And it takes trust. We're not pushing people to do that, but we're creating the space where a person can take the risk and say, you know what? I I looked at porn, I did it, I masturbated, and I'm just tired of living in the shame of it. And I just want you to know because I want you to pray for me, and that's that's what happens. And and of course, the fifth question. And oftentimes a sin will wind up presenting itself through the fifth question, which is is there anything you want to keep secret from us? And well, it can be yes, that's all I'm gonna say today, but that's a breakthrough. And it can be yes and here it is. And as AA says, we're only as sick as our secrets, and we're carrying this, and it's just that's cancer, it's destroying us from the inside out. And so, you know, we we've studied all this, we've learned there's 38 different kinds of secrets that people carry. From, you know, I cheat on my taxes to I kill somebody and nobody knows. I mean, there's there's there's 38, there's all kinds of secrets, and and we're creating that place where and once somebody shares a secret, you it's it's it's not a secret anymore. And you're moving, you're you're this is where breakthrough happens. Um I've been at the altar so many times, and and you'll hear somebody say, I've never told anybody this before. And you know you're about to you're about to touch heaven, and they're gonna tell you oftentimes about some kind of abuse they endured as a child, or some kind of molestation, or just a horrific thing. And it's just it's just eating them from the inside out. But man, once that's you're in a circle like this, where there's strict confidentiality. And then what's happening at the end of the five questions is we pray. And one of the other band members with the agreement of the group, I mean, and this is where this is where the miracles happen. And it's just like this, this I have a little band here. You know, we started this little band in 2015. It was we call it band number one. And since then, thousands and thousands of them have started. Because we we've produced, we give it all away. There's a little guide to it, there's cards that give the questions and the and the guardrails, and we we don't this is not like we're trying to make money off of it because it's secure to cancer. But um I got a little band of farmers, they've all become preachers. Three other farmers and me. We meet every week or two. And you know what I call them? Band number one. Because every band is band number one, and it's and and you don't ever leave your band, but you help start others. You know, you go and you just I often say it's like crossfit. You're not gonna learn crossfit from reading it in a book. You gotta have somebody that's done it to show you how to do a burpee. You can't learn a burpee from a book. Somebody's gotta show you what it looks like. And once you got the muscle movement and then the muscle memory, you can go show somebody else. But that's how we that's how we see banding. It's not something you can say, okay, everybody get this book and go do it. It's not how it works. It's it's slow growth, but it's exponential in time. But we pray, and then the next person shares. And it's it's a simple thing, it's challenging, it's not easy, but it is simple, and we have resisted adding things on to it. Um, and in fact, I share about it in the Romans book, right? I create some space, it just flowed right out of the text to because that this is what's fascinating to me, Chris. And and I I mean, yeah, I'm I'm I'm over talking here and I'm ball hogging, so you jump in here and say I'm just curious when it comes to the band size. Have you found have you found a certain minimum of three? I mean, you can start with two, but you really need three. And four is a great number, five is borderline too many.

Chris Grainger: 34:39

Okay, that was my really what I was trying to get to. Like, where does it get to where it's too much?

J.D. Walt: 34:44

And there and the reason is you need to uh allocate 15 to 20 minutes a person. And once you're into a two-hour meeting, you you just you just don't you wind up not going to that meeting. It's yeah, or where's you out? You just yeah, you're not showing up then. It's too long. So three three is is good, four is great, five is the upper limit. Um two is really it's it's you can if you got two, you can start and start praying about your third. But I'd love for you to put the we have a website where all this is there's there's little teach little short videos. It's called discipleshipbands.com. And sounds good. Yeah, we'll we'll link it up. It's a tested model, it works, um, and it's breakthrough. This is why we're stuck. We don't have the kind of relationships that it takes to sustain real transformation. It's a bottom line. It's not more information's not gonna help us.

Chris Grainger: 35:56

No, it's not. I mean, I think the holy discontent piece is what hit me between the eyes when you said that. I was recently, I heard a guy was talking about beware of the soul-sucking voice of reasonableness. And we just we just reason stuff away to not lean in. But I mean, to some point, those churches is set up to we got to get them saved, and then after we get them saved, our job's done, we wipe our hands and we're going on. But what you're saying, and what I've identified as no, that's when the work begins. That's the starting line, not the finish line.

J.D. Walt: 36:25

Starting line, exactly, Chris. And yeah, it's you know, I find Jesus is far more seemingly in his work uh trying to get heaven into people before he's trying to get people into heaven. I mean, if you get heaven into people, you you got it, you won. When they die, they just step over. And um it's we've gotten the emphasis. I mean, uh yeah, the first half of the gospel it's critical, justification. Second half of the gospel, though, is equally critical, sanctification. And that's fallen on hard times. And my my sort of mantra, Chris, is that the world will wake up to the first half of the gospel when the church wakes up to the second half of the gospel because they'll see it. And it won't require just like fear tactics and gimmicks, and when you see a person who is fully alive, it's like a burning bush. Moses, like, wait, that bush over there is on fire and it's not burning up. I must go see this strange sight. That's a Christian, a real Christian. They're on fire, but like they're not being consumed, and like how do I what's going on there? That's a that's a fully alive, awakened person. Jesus is right in the middle of that. And anyhow, yeah, that's that's also Romans, you know. That's Paul is interestingly, I think he's he's trying to show us, he's trying to operationalize Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit in a human being. He's like bringing the match and he's bringing the lighter fluid, and he's like, How are we gonna get this bush on fire in a way that it won't be burnt up at the end of the day? Amen to that. And love, that's love unleashed. That's right. That's love unleashed. And the opposite of that is sin management. We're just managing sin. And that's so often what we call accountability groups. I'm like, you hold me accountable. Like, no, you can't hold me accountable. I can hold myself accountable with you, but we're really just helping each other manage our sins. That's it's legalism, it's shame-based or pride-based. It's just dead. It's a dead letter. Love unleashed is Jesus.

Chris Grainger: 39:30

Amen to that. Amen. Amen. Guys, we'll take another quick break. The last one will be right back. 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 while 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 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. Leave the mask at the door and come back 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. 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 the lionwithin.us. I look forward to seeing you inside the den. And I am curious, uh, JD, as we've been walking through this, you know, you've you talked about sin management a lot, and that's where so many guys are. And there's some pain that's involved with bringing that sin into the light because you have to expose a little bit of weakness there. But what would be your encouragement to the guy who's trying to I call Beach ball theology. They're trying to hold that beach ball underneath the water. And at some point, you can hold it for a while, but when it comes up, it's usually going to hit you right in the face. You know, and that's what we do with sin. It's like trying to have a pet snake and wonder why we get bit. It's like, no, bro. Like this is this is part of it. So what would you encourage it be to the guy who has that pet snake and he's uh trying not to get bit right now?

J.D. Walt: 42:00

It's like we got to move from sin being our secret lover to becoming our mortal enemy. That's that's good. That's good. And you know, again, I I didn't really expect to be talking about bands, but really it's so it's so critical because you don't just start off, all men know. It's like you're not just gonna go and unless you wind up like sick and tired of being sick and tired in the ditch with a bottle in your hand, and you go to AA. I mean, well, thank God for AA. Bands is what I would call AA for the person that doesn't necessarily identify themselves as an addict. And there's so many, right? They're like, well, I don't know, maybe I got a drinking problem, maybe I don't. I I got a sin problem. And that way you come to grips with that, and it helps you, you start in even those questions, you know, they sort of start in the shallow end, and you just if if a if a man starts over time just like just talking about like what's going on, most men don't have a place to say, you know, I just really don't like my wife. Most men don't have a place to say that. Much less like I'm getting addicted to porn and I'm engaging in some risky behavior. That's not where you're gonna start, but you know where you might start? I I don't like being around my wife. That's a struggle. I'm really struggling at home. I've got anger, and no, I don't have anger. Anger's starting to have me. And I'm just finding myself completely unhinged. And where's a man gonna share that? Not in a big room, and not in church, and not at work where everybody's just sort of, you know, flashing their spiritual badges, and it's in a band, it's in a three people, four people that you've and and you just start sharing a struggle. You're ever we're all testing each other, right? We're just testing the line. Like, is this thing can this hold? Can this will this will this hold? Will this be safe? Will this be appropriate? And I don't know.

Chris Grainger: 44:42

Um I find it interesting, like for us with our mastermind groups, JD, it's a very similar process that we we have set up at the lion, but no matter what somebody brings up, the other guys get value. You know, it's just there's not there's nothing new. It's you mentioned there's 38 things, whatever the number is, there's nothing new. It's just same demons, diff different days. That's all it is, man. So I just think guys just need a place to be able to have these robust, authentic conversations. I think we're all over we're we're we're playing, we're playing the same music, man, to stick to your team.

J.D. Walt: 45:16

Oh, 100%. That's why I was excited to come on your podcast because I'm like, we're singing the same songs here. And yeah, I mean, I think another thing that men have to Romans again, it just shreds, I think, a real thin understanding of the gospel, which we think we're sinners because we sin. And I'm like, no, the opposite's actually true. You sin because you're a sinner, and we all sin different, but we all have we have the cancer, and let's take it out of like the shame and pride categories, like, well, I'm sucking or I'm winning. And let's put this in the category of sickness and wholeness and soul wellness, and let's actually first deal with our sin, a capital S sin problem. And this is like Jesus come into my life. I am a sinner and I have sin cancer. And I have thought I could manage it. I have thought that, well, I'm not as bad as that person. You know, I'm not I'm and that's why really in the last hundred years, it's only the notorious sinners that you hear testimonies from. Because other people think, well, that's not me. And I'm actually I'm more on a good to great program here. I'm like, no, the gospel is not good to great. It's darkness to light, it's death to life, it's chaos to like new creation, it's lost to loved. The gospel is not good to great, and we have turned it into a self-improvement program with little Jesus dust sprinkled over it. And it's it's transformation, it's transcendent formation. It is the presence of the transcendent Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit coming into the human inmost being and completely renovating the place and crushing sin has lost its power. And you know, when you when you define sin according to behavior, um you're treating the symptoms. And you cannot treat cancer by treating the symptoms of cancer. You can manage it for a while, but the the New Testament f fully uh envisions a person who actually has defeated sin. They're not perfect, but they're Jesus in them is overcoming sin. Because that's the second big conversion that has to happen with our understanding of sin. We primarily think of sin as our failure, our shame. I've done wrong, I've done bad, I am bad, and we completely miss the picture of sin destroys other people. Sin is the move in me that because it's a complete self-orientation, and it's interesting, you can define it in a self-orientation, but once you realize, okay, so what's that's what I ask people and I learned in Romans, what's the opposite of sin? And what would you say? People say, Well, that's righteousness. I'm like, no, that's just another way of you saying good behavior, not sinning, right? Not sinning is the opposite of sin. No, the opposite of sin is love. And love is not a mushy, soft, warm feeling, it's the willfulness for the good of other people. Sin is a love, sin is about self. Love is about others. That's why when they asked Jesus, we're like, Well, what's a what's the greatest law? And they wanted him to identify like what's his top sin on what's his sin list? He's like, Love God. Uh love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself, which implies you've learned to love yourself, not because of yourself, but because of God loves you. And then you get in that cycle, that's a flywheel. That's from the doom loop to the flywheel where you're it's unleashed. Love becomes unleashed in your life. And and clearly the New Testament is has this vision. I mean, you get over to John in 1 John, he's like, I write this to you so that you will not sin. I mean, that's the vision. But then he says, but if you do, okay, just just so you know, this is not perfectionism here. This if you do, that we have we have an advocate. And if you confess your sins, he will forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And then you reset and you're back in the game, because I wrote this to you, remember, so that you won't sin. You you got to get out of yourself. You got to get set free from the prison of self. And again, self-improvement, right? That's just the same prison with just a little better flavoring and seasoning. And and you Jesus is trying to get you complete. Well, that's what He is in you. He's going for the other.

Chris Grainger: 51:37

Amen to that, brother. Amen. Well, JD, this has been I I've learned so much. Before we wrap up, I love to have a little fun with you here at the end, a little lightning round. So you want to have want to play along? Okay, let's do it. Sounds good. Sounds good. So let me maybe share. You do a great job.

J.D. Walt: 51:54

Chris, you do a great job with this podcast. Well, thank you, man. I try. I try. There's lots of I appreciate what you're doing. I mean, this is hard what you're doing. Okay. And I know you've been at this four years. It's harder than you expected. It's taken longer. It's cost more, but you're doing it. And so keep doing it. It's mattering.

Chris Grainger: 52:19

Amen, brother. Amen. Thank you for those words of encouragement. I I just finished teaching a session on encouragement this morning, by the way. And then you say that. So that's that's that's pretty crazy.

J.D. Walt: 52:29

This summer I wrote a whole book on encouragement. I wrote 57 messages. It's in the title of my book, you're gonna love it. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that you will not be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. That's the title of the book, the Bible verse.

Chris Grainger: 52:51

I love it. Love it, JD.

J.D. Walt: 52:53

We've got to get great plagiarism. But but that's the that's the great need of every man to every day to encourage and to be encouraged.

Chris Grainger: 53:03

Amen. And the good litless good litmus test to know if somebody needs to be encouraged if they're breathing. So if they're breathing, guys, they need to be encouraged.

J.D. Walt: 53:11

Right. A hundred percent. I want to hear that message. Why don't you send it to me?

Chris Grainger: 53:15

Timful, buddy, 104. Well, let's jump into the lightning round here. Give me a hobby, something that you enjoy doing for fun, JD.

J.D. Walt: 53:24

I like to uh I like to play golf. And I used to like to hunt, but now I'd rather just shoot skeet, you know, or trap. It's a lot cleaner.

Chris Grainger: 53:36

Now you gotta explain it. I've been looking at motorcycle behind you the whole time. So you're a bike rider?

J.D. Walt: 53:41

I'm not. This place, this place we bought this old abandoned hardware store on Main Street in Gillette. Gillette's a town of 500, and there's no, there's nothing, there's no businesses here. And this place was just abandoned. It was filled with trash and treasures, and that was a treasure that was back in the back of the place. In the other room, there's a Model A car. We can't quite move that as easy, but we moved the motorcycle out, and everybody wants to know what is that? Is that a 60 or is that an 80? I mean, I don't even know. But no, I don't ride motorcycles because I wouldn't be here if I did.

Chris Grainger: 54:15

Fair enough. Fair enough. I had to give them up myself recently. So yeah, that's it. So what about your favorite food? Where are you going to, JD, when you get down to sit down and eat?

J.D. Walt: 54:24

You know, if I can get a solid ribeye by 16 ounce, medium, rare-ish, um, yeah, with some Tabasco and some salt.

Chris Grainger: 54:42

That's all I need. That's all you need. Let's go. Let's go. Now, you're a music man, you've already mentioned that. But what so what's your what's your all-time favorite band going back?

J.D. Walt: 54:53

Wow, man, that's I I I of course um I love country music. And um, of course, J. Dan the Dukes is my favorite band. But you know, I love the I love Merle Haggard, and I love Big City Turned Me Loose and Set Me Free. And and I love David Allen Coe, you know, the the PG-rated David Allen Coe.

Chris Grainger: 55:25

Was there such a thing? But yeah, I'm just kidding.

J.D. Walt: 55:27

I mean, you know, back in the day, you never you don't had to call me Darling. I mean, I love Johnny Cash and I love Willie Nelson, and you know, I just was playing Martina McBride today. Love's the only house big enough for all the pain in the world. I'm like, that's good. Um so I I like I'm not big on the bro country and certainly not all this sort of quasi-hip hop country. I'm like, just stay in your lane, guys.

Chris Grainger: 56:01

Come on. I wish they would do that. No, I think it peaked in the 90s and now it's just been down downhill ever since.

J.D. Walt: 56:11

Yes, I mean, yeah, I I I'm I'm about those guys.

Chris Grainger: 56:19

Amen. Amen. Well, how about any habits, JD? I mean, you're you're a big guy, you got a lot of success. Any habits that you have could be health habit, you know, spiritual habit that you would find value in sharing.

J.D. Walt: 56:33

I I'm just I love God's word, and every day I've I realized a few years ago, I just got convicted like in the morning, like first thing I'm gonna pick up's my phone and I'm gonna go to my text or my email or my Instagram or whatever and see what happened last night. And that so I realized I was was that was my first word of the day. And then I realized at night I'd be there, I'd just be watching some, you know, episode of a Netflix show, and then put my phone down and go to bed. And so I realized first word was text and email, last word was was Netflix. And I'm like, I'm not against text and email or Instagram and Netflix, but I'm like, they're not gonna get the first word and the last word on my day anymore. And so now, as soon as I'm conscious, I'm gonna bring a word from God. I'm gonna say, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I'm sometimes it'll take me to the shower to say it all. I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. And I believe in speaking the word of God habitually aloud, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. And so the first word that's going to come out of my mouth every day is God's word. I call this first word, last word, God's word. And at the end of every day, right, after I watch the Netflix show, I say this, Psalm 16. I will bless the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. And I believe he's going to speak to me in the night. In fact, just this morning I woke up with a strong sense of the word of the Lord about a particular situation in my work, and just wrote it down. Um, first word, last word, God's word. That's the habit. Love that habit. I'm that was I remember that being at like the beginning of your book as well.

Chris Grainger: 58:51

So that I'm so glad you got that right.

J.D. Walt: 58:53

It's in the beginning of the book. Amen. Amen. You know, that's that's the thing, Chris, is uh Isaiah 40 verse 8 says the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And I was talking to a couple of little boys not long ago. I said, guys, y'all know what that's saying. That's saying, look around, everything you see is coming to nothing except one thing, and that one thing is becoming everything. And so let's put the st let's stake our lives on the one thing.

Chris Grainger: 59:38

Well, speaking of the speaking of the one thing, what is your favorite thing about God?

J.D. Walt: 59:45

My favorite thing about God is that He never gives up on us. That He uh keeps coming, that He keeps getting us back up, that He keeps saying just don't give up. You've you're you're not too far gone. You're you've you've not failed your way out of this course or this life, that He loves us and that He's 100,000% committed to us to finish what He began. And that it's not up to us, it's up to Him. That the pressure's off. You know, Jesus He said, like, if this feels too hard, you're not doing it right. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Get on board with me, and I'll show you how this works. That's God.

Chris Grainger: 1:00:48

That's God. Now let's flip it 180, JD. What's your least favorite thing about Satan?

J.D. Walt: 1:00:56

Oh, that he just is a liar and that he's trying to get us to trade, he's just given us such a horrible deal through our deepest vulnerabilities. He's like, I mean it's just amazing. I think about Esau. It's like he got Esau to sell his entire birthright for a pot of soup. And for an for an you know, it's just amazing how you you he'll get you to to to trade in a week of deep abiding peace for five minutes of porn. I'm like, come on, that is such a Horrible deal. And Satan, that's my least favorite thing about him. He can sell it.

Chris Grainger: 1:01:48

And we'll buy it. He's a great salesman.

J.D. Walt: 1:01:51

We'll buy it. And I'm like, golly. And we'll keep buying it. The dog returns to its vomit, Jesus said. And that's why that's where holy discontent comes in, Chris. It's like I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I, you know, I've come to this place when I step up to preach on Sunday in my little church over here. I'm like, here's my prayer, Jesus. I got nothing. And you got everything. So how about you bring your everything into my nothing? Because that'll be something.

Chris Grainger: 1:02:29

I love it. Love it. Love it.

J.D. Walt: 1:02:32

I got nothing, Chris. I don't have anything. I got nothing, but Jesus has everything, and I got Jesus. Amen. And I mean, Jesus plus nothing is everything.

Chris Grainger: 1:02:47

Let's go, JD. Let's go. Last question for you is what do you hope the the listeners remember the most from our conversation today?

J.D. Walt: 1:02:58

Oh my gosh. Band together. I think that's been the that that's not what I thought we'd be talking about, but the Lord brought that to us today. We just I started talking about my band, JD and the Dukes, and I wound up talking about my other band. But that's that's what that is the most practical thing a man can do. Go to our go to that site and get those questions and and you know what? I I tell people, I'm like, listen, if you don't have any way that any help to do this, just I'll I'll help you. This is the most valuable use of an hour of my time is to sit here and show you how to do the burpee and the every minute on the minute and the the cross the routine, and then you can go. But because it's very hard just to get it from watching a video or reading a book. You you need to have some, you know, you don't need a leader just go with you all the way. You just need somebody to say this is this is what it this is this is how you do it.

Chris Grainger: 1:04:01

Amen to that. Amen. Where where do you want to send the guys to get a copy of your book, all your resources? Just I want to point them in the right direction for you.

J.D. Walt: 1:04:08

Yeah, so I would love it if you would go to seedbed seedbed.com slash wake up call. One word, wake up call, just like it sounds. And just subscribe to the to the daily uh wake up call. It's it it's an email that'll come to you. That email will have links to the books, to the Romans book, and of course it'll have links to the YouTube and the podcast, so you can get to where you want to listen to it or watch it or read it, but it starts there with that email, seedbed.com slash wake up call. And um we'll just I call it a meeting with Jesus every day. That's what it is. And we'll pray, we we start with consecration, we pray, we we read God's word, we engage with it, we we close out singing a hymn, and uh I'd love to have you join me.

Chris Grainger: 1:05:15

Oh I'd love to do that, JD. So guys, be sure to go check out all those resources, and JD, it's been an honor. Thank you for sharing today.

J.D. Walt: 1:05:23

Yeah, Chris, we'll get you on the wake-up call here, and uh I'm gonna get your book and tell us that title again.

Chris Grainger: 1:05:31

Yeah, Unleashing the Lion Within. Thank you so much for that.

J.D. Walt: 1:05:35

Yeah, uh, that's also a very hard thing to do to write a book. So and and you know, you that's the crazy thing. You just hate to self-promote it. But you know what? You're not self-promoting, you're Jesus promoting. So, guys, get a hold of that book, and thanks for being a part of this podcast and this community, and um, we'll see you on the field. Amen. Thank you, JD.

Chris Grainger: 1:06:04

If you're looking for a simple way to get your week started right, the weekly roar is for you. So every week, I'll share a short reflection on scripture and a couple practical steps to help you walk it out. It's all about being clear, honest, and staying rooted in God's Word. And here's the deal: there's gonna be no inbox games, there's no hype. It's just an encouraging and quite often a challenging word to help you steady your week and strengthen in leadership. So if that sounds interesting, sign up for free at thelionwithin.us slash roar. And here's the cool part. You can read this in a few minutes and carry it with you the rest of the day. So again, thelionwithin.us slash roar. That's R-O-A-R, to get your personal weekly roar every Monday morning. All right, guys, I told you that's gonna be a fun one. So thank you to JD for showing up there and just for all the wisdom that he shared. Question of the week, though, I want you to think about where are you still trying to earn God's love? Now, JD and I talked about this a lot today, about trying to sin management, trying to earn that right standing with God versus just understanding, man. He just gives it to us. He's a good, good father. He loves us so much. So hopefully, you guys, if you're trying to earn God's love, man, just just give yourself a little bit of a break today and understand the the good news of the gospel. And look, if you don't have that, JD calls them a band, we call them leadership, we call them our our lion's den. We we do it within our leadership mastermind primarily. If you don't have that in your life, guys, reach out. Do not try to do this thing called life alone. Okay, you're just gonna be disappointed, and we're here to help, we're here to encourage you, okay? So all that stuff can be found at thionwithin.us. So, guys, come back on Friday. We'll have a fun Friday episode with our new format. I'd love to know what you guys are thinking about those. And other than that, we're here for you. We're here ready to serve, ready to support. Just reach out if we can ever help, okay? All that's found at lionwithin.us, guys, have a great day. Get after it, and just keep unleashing the lion within.