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 your spiritual kickoff episode. Let's get right into it, okay? I'm super pumped. For these, the SKOs each and every week are for me to favor it. So hopefully you enjoy them. Scripture of the week this week is in Job, not Job, but Job 1, the eighth verse. It says, The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? For there's no one like him on the earth, a blameless, an upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Guys, that's a powerful verse right there. So now we got to see how we can simplify and apply that to our life. Okay, again, that's what it's all about on the spiritual kickoff episodes. And again, if you enjoy these Monday through Friday at the within the line within us, we go on live every morning. And the cool part is if you can't make the live feed, that's okay. Don't worry about it. Lots of guys do. But if you can't make it, we put those videos right there in it, right there, so you can see them each and every day. You can get that little bit of encouragement. Lots of guys watch them during the lunch or during breaks or whatever it may be, or maybe they're working out. They just have a little extra encouragement. And look, we don't put that stuff anywhere else. It doesn't go on YouTube channel, it doesn't go out into the world on the internet anywhere. It stays right there within the daily spiritual kickoff. And the cool part is we give that away, fellas. We just want to encourage you. So go check out thelionwithin.us. Start your daily spiritual kickoff. That's what you'll see it called. Daily spiritual kickoff. Get started today, okay? All right. Now, we need to understand first off, where is the book of Job? So when you look, pick up your Bible, it can be intimidating to lots of guys. So what we need to know first off, this is in your Old Testament, okay? And to find Job, basically go to Psalms. Most guys can find Psalms. Right there at the middle of your Bible. You get Psalms and Proverbs. But right before Psalms, you'll find the book of Job. If you go back too far, you run into Esther. So if you get to Esther, just keep flipping. If you get to Psalms, flip back. Okay. So that's where you find it. Yeah, one-on-one stuff, but we want to try to help you guys along the way. Now, the thing, the thought for this particular verse in this episode, I had the thought, how can I be a Job? And I don't know about you, but that's not something I would volunteer for, right? Like we think about him, we admire him, we quote him often like when we talk about Job. You hear pastors preaching about him all the time. But do we really want to be him? Let's just be real here. Because to be a Job means you got to have what? You got to go through some suffering. You got to have some loss. You got to have some pain. You got to have some trials. And to the point where you start questioning everything, except for the goodness of God. And I'm going to tell you right now, that that hit me hard thinking about this. And here's a truth that we don't say out loud enough. Pain, fellas, is often where God draws us the closest. I know for me personally, I have drawn my relationship as grown with Christ more through trials than any triumph. Okay. And I know this stuff doesn't make sense on paper. Hardships can feel like we want to avoid that at all costs. We'd never want to embrace that. But I can just tell you, it going through those hardships and those those pains has always drawn me closer to him through that season of affliction. Not because the suffering is good. Don't hear me wrong. Not because the suffering is good, but because God uses that suffering to reveal himself more to me. Okay? And that's really what this verse right here is so cool about when we start thinking about it. God himself, you know, not Job's friends, not Job's wife, uh, not Job's resume or things he's done for himself, but God declares Job to be blameless, upright, God-fearing. And that's crazy. And God does this knowing what Job is getting ready to go through. And that makes me think, how do we become men like Job? Because I don't know many guys who wouldn't say that they want to become more godly men. Okay? That's out there. Every guy says that. But I don't know many that say they want to be this godly. Because most of us, we want that character without the testing. We want strength without the strain. We want to have that endurance without the fire, but man, Job shows us a different path. This is a harder path. It's also a holier path. Okay? And Scripture gives us a two-part formula for how Job lived. And it's simpler and more costly than we think. First, Job feared God. He had a deep and reverent fear of the Lord. He didn't treat God like some distant figure, you know, he couldn't be approached. But he also didn't treat him like he was a genie in the bottle and he's just waiting for him to grant wishes. You guys, you know what I'm talking about, right? Just like he's some cosmic bending machine. No, that is not it. His reference, not his reference, his reverence was rightly ordered. He recognized the sovereignty of God in everything. He placed God at the center of every decision, every thought, and every priority. And don't miss that part. And that shaped how he lived. And this was long before any suffering entered Job's existence. And that kind of fear of the Lord is foundational. Okay, because that's what steadies us as men when life starts to fall apart. And it is at some point going to feel that way. And it's what keeps us as men from drifting when guess what? Temptations come by. That steady reverence of God. And it what keeps us humble and ready to hear what God is showing us. So if you want to be a Job, this is where it starts. God has to be first. I know it's like so cliche, but like, bro, is he really first? And not occasionally, not conveniently, but all the time. Is he first? Now the second part of this formula, for you guys who like math, he turned away from evil. He consistently and intentionally turned away from evil. Scripture doesn't tell us that evil didn't show up. No. It didn't say that Job lived in a bubble. No. It says that when evil appeared, Job made the conscience choice to turn away from it. And this is something that lots of dudes want to skip over. Because turning away from evil means we have convictions strong enough that they're going to cost us something. Right? Maybe a relationship. It may cost us monetarily. I don't know. But it means we have boundaries and standards that people do not understand. And that's okay. And it means we have to be proactive instead of reactive and doing certain things that people would think is silly. For instance, for example, rather. And I know some of you guys are probably going to roll your eyes when I say this, but I don't, I refuse to be alone in a room with a woman who's not my wife. I just refuse to do it. I'm not, and is that extreme? Maybe, and that's okay. But I'm not going to apologize for guarding the marriage. And I don't want to give the evil one the smallest foothold ever for temptation to be a stumbling block in my marriage. So therefore, that's a non-negotiable. That is a standard I have in place. That's a high level of intentionality. And Job had a high level of intentionality. He didn't wait for disaster to guard his integrity. No, he was prepared. And being in Job doesn't mean we have to do uncomfortable, unclamorous daily work, right? What we have to do is we have to be intentional about turning away from evil when no one else is watching. That's what we have to do. And then think about this Job put God first in every season. Not just when things were going well. Because here's the reality. Being a godly man didn't shield Job from suffering, did it? No. In fact, in this case, you look at it, what happened? It attracted the enemy's attention. And that's tough to wrestle with. But we got to see Job's faithfulness. And we got to see that it wasn't circumstantial. Right? It wasn't tied to his what he he currently found himself in. His devotion wasn't dependent on comfort. He was crushing it before the evil one took over and started ruining his life. But his it wasn't dependent on that. And his obedience didn't disappear when things got really bad. And that's really interesting to think about. Because that's resilience. And that is rare. And to the point where God's like, have you even considered my servant Joe? That's like crazy to think about. Crazy. Because here's the reality: most of us want the praise of the verse without the process that it produces. Right? And to be a Joe means committing everything to God. So that's everything when things are going calm and smooth or when it's chaotic. And believing, truly believing, that when you do go into a storm, that that's an invitation to know him more deeply. And that's 180 degrees against what the world's going to tell you. And we have to recognize that when we go through suffering, it's not a punishment, it's more of a refinement process. And this is where our minor mindset betrays us. Because most people associate affliction with failure. Or they equate a hardship with God's displeasure. And Job's like, nope, this is not it. This he didn't see his suffering as an as a as God's absence. That's how he saw it. It showcased God's trust. Because when hard times hit, God is not trying to destroy us. He's trying to reveal more of Himself to us. And sometimes that revelation only comes when every other support system that we have in place is stripped away. So how do we become a Job? I don't think it's by asking for suffering. I don't think it's for desiring a trial or pretending that pain is pleasant. Like those things are ridiculous. But we have to choose every day to fear God rightly, to turn away from evil intentionally, to put him first all the time. We have to be super consistent with that. And we have to trust him fully. No matter what's around us. Right? It's about seeking God above all else. Whether the blessings are flowing or the bottom's falling out, right? It's about seeking him. And when we live that way, what we're doing is we're positioning ourselves to hear the the word every man should long for. Have you considered my servant? Bro, like that's a that's a kind of man to to aim for. That's a kind of man to strive for. And the kind of man that God uh can point to with some pretty great delight. Man, I I just challenge us, may we dare to be counted among them. And so that's it. If you want to be a Job, use this verse, unpack it and apply it and see what God does with it. Now look, straight up, you have to think through our question this week is which area of your life is competing with God for first place? Something probably is. With Job, there was no question. He knew what was first in his life. And he made a conscious decision every day to pursue Christ. Well, to pursue God for us is pursue Christ, right? Decision you have to make. Which leads you to this, to the final point on this spiritual kickoff episode to think about is do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? The Lion is getting a fair amount of attention these days. God is doing some great things. And when more and more people are listening and tuning in, and I'm not naive enough to think that everyone who listens to the Lion Within Us or follows us or checks, even checks us stuff out on the Bible app that there are Christians. There are plenty of people who aren't. They're just curious. And you may be one of them that's just curious. Thank you, first and foremost, just for taking the time to listen. And if you don't have that personal relationship with Christ, if you've never confessed him as Lord and Savior, you're missing out on the greatest gift of all time. Free gift of salvation. And more importantly, outside of salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit that is available to everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior. And I just want you to know one thing. If you're listening to this in Job and you got all these thoughts going on, you may be thinking, you know what, Chris, I got to get a whole lot right first before I even consider doing something like this. I mean, I say I want to tell you, brother, you're going about it wrong. You don't have to get right. You just need to get God. And to start, first of all, recognize that you are made in the image of God. And this is what's hard for so many guys just to get over this initial hurdle of, I'm no good. Like, no, bro, you are made in the image of God. It tells us in scripture that when God first formed the first man, he with his hands, he breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and he set up, he was face to face with his creator. And it says right there that we were made in his image. So what you see is some jacked-up dude in the mirror, God's like, no, bro, I see me. And like that is such a salient point that we can't forget. Okay? We can't just fly by that. And unfortunately, like when that happened at the very beginning of your Bible, go back to Genesis and check it out. For like two pages, it was great. And then sin entered the world. And that sin separated us from God. Go back and read, you know, the fall. And that created this chasm, this gap between a holy and righteous guy and us. And so many dudes I talk with, like we're trying to overcome this gap with stuff that we do. Going to church, being a good person, helping people, you know, taking care of my family, all the stuff that you know that are that the acts themselves are good. But the problem is we're putting too much weight in the act itself. And we're trying to earn our way into salvation. It's called workspace righteousness, and it just doesn't exist. We're made uh for to be able to do these works, but but but those works in themselves don't pay penalty for our sin. So we got a holy and righteous God, and we all fall short of his glory, and we can't do anything on ourselves to overcome it, then what do we do? That is the question, by the way. Well, you need somebody to come in and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. We need a Savior. This is where Jesus enters the picture, who left heaven on a rescue mission for us. He was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the teachings, the miracles. He showed us, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was the Messiah. And then he did the ultimate sacrifice when he went to the cross for us to pay the penalty for our sins. That is Jesus. That is who that is who we put our trust in. So he died on the cross. He didn't feign to go to sleep. He died on the cross. They let him in a tomb. And if the story stops there, then he was just a good dude. That did some cool tricks and then he got killed. But the story doesn't stop there. Because three days after that, after he was killed, he rose. He defeated death. I don't know about you, but I'm following the guy that goes into the tomb, you know, holes in his hands, feet in his side, completely dead, and then three days later, he's walking out. That's who I'm following. Because he overcame death. And that's who we have to put our trust in. Then he ascended to heaven right now. That's where he's at, fellas. So it all comes down to do you believe that to be true? And if you do believe that to be true, are you willing to confess him as Lord and Savior of your life? Not Lord and Savior of a Sunday. Okay, that's what most people would think. Well, I got time for Jesus on Sunday. Now I'm talking about over your life. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, every day of the week, in your meetings, in your marriage, in your bedroom, in the bathroom, in traffic, is He Lord over every area of your life. Because that's what He that's what He requires. I'm telling you, the rarest commodity out that that's on earth right now is peace. And the only peace that I've ever found for me has come through a relationship with Christ. There's not an amount of money, there's not a status out there that's gonna give you peace of mind the way that you'll have experienced peace when you have Christ as your Lord and Savior and you have been indwelled with the Holy Spirit. So you have a decision to make right now. Are you gonna keep doing life your way and trudging through, or are you gonna submit to him? My prayer is that you submit to him. I can't make you, but I can definitely encourage you right now, today, to submit to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So if you're ready to do that, I'll pray with you right now. Why not? Let's pray together as you invite him into your life. So, Lord, I there's someone listening. I know what is. There's someone listening right now. And they're tired of doing it their way. And they're tired of fighting. And they feel they're tired of feeling like they're losing. And they recognize something has been missing. And that one thing is you. So as they're inviting you into their life, Lord, I just pray for them for strength, for encouragement, for people to come alongside and help them. Because right now the evil one is not happy. He's gonna do all he can to stop this from happening. So I pray, Lord, that you just be just be with this person. Lift them up. Let them know, let them feel your presence. And just put people in their path that are gonna encourage them in the fight. We love you, Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen. So look, if we just uh if you just accepted Christ. I want to hear from you. First of all, I got a bunch of resources. I just want to give you. I just want to hook you up with some resources to get you started in your discipleship journey. You're going to need them. You're going to need some some battle, some equipment to go into this battle, rather, okay? So hit me up, Chris at the lionwithin.us. That's my email address. Send me an email. Tell me which episode you listened to and that you've accepted Christ, and we'll hook you up with some resources right there. Super easy, okay? Want to hear from you. This stuff is important. And look, you don't want to go in this battle alone. You need some brothers in Christ who are going to come alongside of you. They're going to help you. They're going to cheer for you and pray for you and lift you up. This is what we're all about at the Lion Within Us, okay? So again, thelionwithin.us is our website. You guys go check all that stuff out, all our resources there from the Bible app to the Daily Spiritual Kickoff to the Lion's Den community to Leadership Mastermind to our book. Fellas, all that resources are there. The weekly roar, I forgot about that. So many guys sign up for the weekly roar. Thousands upon thousands of guys have signed up for that just to get a little bit of encouragement each and every day. All that's found, belionwithin.us. All right. So thank you guys for listening. Look, our episode on Wednesday is going to be baller. You guys are going to enjoy this one. It's a great conversation about fighting for your family, how to do it practically. Most of you guys like, I fight with them all the time. I didn't say with, I said for. Fighting for your family, okay? So come back for that episode. I think you're gonna think you guys are gonna enjoy it, all right? So again, thelionwithin.us, connect with us there, thelionwithin.us slash donate. If you want to be a supporter of what we do, that'd be awesome. And look, open up the Bible app, search for the lion within us in the Bible app, and you'll find us right there, okay? Tons and tons of resources, lots of ways to help. All right, guys, get after it. Have a great day. We'll see you next time. Just keep unleashing the lion within. Let's just say it out loud. Marriage is one of the greatest gifts that God can give a man, and one of the most consistent places where we can feel unsure of what we're doing. Even the strongest marriages have moments where you look at your wife and you think, you know what? I love you. I'm so committed to you. But right now, I have no idea what I should do next. And that's why we launched something new inside the lion within us community. It's our very first support group, and it's for husbands. And we're calling it committed and occasionally confused. This isn't just a place for men in crisis. Though if you're there, hey, you're welcome. This is for any man who refuses to coast and wants to take his marriage from good to great. So inside, you'll find an active chat and a feed, honest conversations, and brotherhood that says, you're not alone. We've been there. Let's bring this to God and grow. And we're also doing a monthly couples night where your wife is invited because we're not letting the world set the agenda for our homes. Now, if you want access to this support group, it's very simple. Go to thelionwithin.us and join the Lions Den. Okay, that's the LionWithin.us. Start your 30-day free trial of the Lions Den community, and boom, you have instant access to the committed and occasionally confused support group. We'll see you inside the den.