Welcome And Scripture Reading

Chris Grainger 0:02

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, guys. Spiritual kickoff time. Let's get into it. Okay. Scripture of the week this week is Colossians 1, 28 and 29. Okay, two verses. He is the one we proclaim admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone. Man. Chloe, start over. Chloe, start over. 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, guys. Spiritual kickoff time. Let's get into it. Scripture of the week this week. The book of Colossians, the first chapter, verses 28 and 29, says this. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end, I strenuously contend with all energy Christ so powerfully works in me. All right, guys. That's some killer verses right there. Like we got to see how we can simplify and apply this to our life, okay? And we're going to get right into it here in a second. First of all, if you enjoy the spiritual kickoff, join the daily SKO. We have guys signing up for this every day now. It's been unbelievable what God has been doing. It's a free way for us to serve you. I just give a little bit of a scripture teaching each and every day. It's live. You can join it. If you can't make the live feed, don't worry. You have the access to the videos. We also give you a free gift. So like there's literally nothing to lose. And it even gives you access to our prayer request space where we can pray for you and with you on a daily basis. We have a weekly call on Mondays. So look, guys, there's this there's no reason to sit on the fence on this one. This is all free. It's all our ways to serve you. And quite quite frankly, guys, absolutely love it. I mean, we've got several thousand guys in the daily SKO at this point. It's been unbelievable what God has been doing. It's been an exponential growth curve, and we would love to have you in it. Again, it's in your pocket, it's in an app, and it's right

Join The Daily SKO

Chris Grainger 2:12

there. And hopefully you'll be encouraged by it, okay? So thelionwithin.us, just click on that daily spiritual kick-off or daily SKO is what it's called on the website. Okay. So let's get into this scripture. So where is Colossians? We need to first understand. All right, it's New Testament, because not everybody knows that. It is New Testament. You're going to find it, it's one of the epistles. It's after Philippians and it's before First Thessalonians. So if you're kind of flipping towards the back, that's where you're going to find it. Okay. Now, we're going to see right here with this scripture how we're supposed to strenuously contend, right? And but we what what we also recognize to be true is that most guys just uh ignore. Okay. They should, they just ignore. And we need to have an understanding of a little bit of context here, because I think context would help us when we start thinking about these verses. Paul is writing this from prison, okay? From prison. You know, not from a motel or hotel somewhere. No, from prison, right? It's not comfort, it's not from a stage. This place that he was in was because it was it was a cost that he was paying. And his focus was very clear. I'm gonna just proclaim

Where To Find Colossians

Chris Grainger 3:17

Christ, I'm gonna teach truth, and I'm gonna build mature believers, right? He wasn't worried about entertaining or trying to get likes or followers or trying to soften a message to make sure this doesn't offend anybody, right? No, I'm I wasn't doing this. I'm not trying to fit into culture. That's not Paul's MO. That wasn't his motive. He's like, no, he is the one we proclaim, right? That's not an opinion. That Paul's like, this is it. This is the truth of what I know to be true, and I'm not gonna water it down for you just to try to make it fit into whatever you think your narrative of truth is. Christ is it, and this is where he starts. Okay?

Paul’s Prison Focus On Christ

Chris Grainger 3:52

Because at the end of the day, fellas, please hear me. Hear my heart on this. We don't get to edit the gospel. We don't get to edit the gospel. We've got to stop trying that, man. Like, there's too many people out there that are walking around with a highlighter and a pair of scissors when it comes to the Bible and to God's Word. And they highlight what really feels good to them, and they want to definitely put an extra emphasis on that, and we want to cut out the pieces that we don't agree with, or we don't feel uncomfortable with, or we think it's gonna offend somebody. And like, bro, what are you doing? What are you doing? The gospel is offensive. It's gonna step on toes. Why? Because it confronts sin, it calls out pride, and it demands surrender. Okay, so instead of boldly teaching what God's word says, there are too many guys out there that are shrinking back because they don't want to offend anybody. And I'm just here to tell you, bro, like that that's just not the world we live in. Like, you're gonna either you got to figure out where you're gonna stand. And I know where I'm gonna stand. I'm gonna stand

We Don’t Edit The Gospel

Chris Grainger 4:46

on God's word, and I recognize that's gonna frustrate a lot of people, and that's okay. Uh that's it. I mean, it his word is is I I don't want to take any uh deviation from that whatsoever. Because Paul literally says, in this scripture we're looking at today, guys, admonishing and teaching everyone. So what does admonishing mean? Just think about that word. We don't use it a whole lot, but it just means correcting. It means calling things out. It means speaking truth when it is uncomfortable, okay? I mean, that's what it means to be a leader. Anybody can say the stuff that people want to hear, but it takes a true, bold leader walking in truth to say the things that he knows to be true, but they're not going to be necessarily welcome with open arms, right? Because at the end of the day, what is the goal? I mean, think about what the apostle Paul is trying to show us here. What is the goal? Okay, it's not comfort. The goal is not comfort, it's maturity. Right? He says, so that we may present everyone, what, halfway mature? No, fully mature in Christ. Not half grown, not surface level, not Sunday only Christians, bro. Like mature. That maturity. And that maturity, here's the thing. We can't become fully mature Christians through comfort. It happens when we lean into the truth, when we are challenged. That's when the growth happens, right? This is a call for us as guys. Like, where are we taking comfort versus where are we leaning into truth? At home, at work, in our communities, at church, wherever it may be, we're called to teach, model, and lead others towards what? Maturity in Christ. And that starts with our own personal walk with Him. And if you're advocating that, or if you're just designating certain times of the week or the month or even of a day that you're fully aligned to him, and the rest of the day, you're going to do what you want to do, you're missing the opportunity here. Because he says right here, strenuously contend. Because this is where it gets real, okay? And we can't forget and we we can't skip by this. I mean, Paul literally says, to this end, I strenuously contend. And that word matters. Because think about what it's strenuous. Like if you think about when you're strenuously trying to do something, like you're putting some effort, you're putting some intensity, uh, you're putting everything you got. Like, it's easy to think about this when you're in the gym, right? And you're trying to push maybe a PR for a bench, right? You're going to strenuously contend with that way. It's not going to be easy. You're going to put that effort, it's going to be intense, it's going to be hard, right? And this is what Paul is saying about the gospel, right? He's saying, look, we can't coast, man. We can't be casual about this, right? And I and we can't uh just just say, you know, I'm just gonna give as the bare minimum. It's like, no, I'm gonna give everything I have to this mission, right? And that

Misplaced Effort And Spiritual Passivity

Chris Grainger 7:34

is what we're called to do. And here's the tension with this, though, fellas, think about this. There are so many guys out there, and please, if this, if you feel like you're in this camp, I'm not condemning you. I'm trying to illuminate something for you. But there are too many guys out there that live their entire lives and they never strenuously pursue what God has called them to do. They don't. Now, we'll strenuously pursue other stuff, won't we? We'll strenuously pursue money, honey's, status, comfort, approval. We'll strenuously it pursue that stuff, right? Grind it out for those promotions, man, or for that recognition. We'll trying to get that hot chick that you wanted to take out on a date, right? We'll we'll strenuously pursue those things, right? And what we make and we make these sacrifices and check it out. Most of these things, quite frankly, they don't last. But when it's come time to strenuously pursue leading our home, teaching God words, discipling others, spending time with God on a regular basis, what happens? Passivity. Guys, you've heard me talk about this over and over and over, how spiritual passivity is one of the is probably the number one item that is taking so many guys out. And it's, and we, and Paul is showing us here in the scripture that it's misplaced effort. That misplaced effort, that's the real problem, right? It's not that guys don't have effort, like most guys, I know lots of guys, and they put a lot of passion in certain things. Usually the problem is the effort is misdirected. Okay. Because we're going all in on a temporary, right? And half step on the internal. And like, I mean, that's just the way it is, man. It's so hard to get guys to start thinking about the temporary things of this world because the temporary stuff is right here, right? But Paul flips it. He's like, this is what, like, right here, the truth of the gospel, this is what I'm exhausting myself for. Right? I'm not I'm not chasing this temporary crap. No, I'm not chasing your your likes and your approval. Nope, I'm chasing Christ. And this power source matters here, fellas. Because look at the second half of this verse. With all the energy, Christ so powerfully works in me. Okay. That's it. Like, this isn't something hustle culture or try harder. This is a spirit-empowered effort. Paul's going all out, but he's not going about it alone. Christ, he recognized, is the fuel for the work he's been called to do. You see the difference there? And it's it's so illuminating when we start seeing it this way. And this is a call for us today, guys, because this is the standard. We have to recognize that we have to stop, for one, editing the truth. Stop editing the truth, man. Like the word is the word. We also got to stop avoiding hard conversations. Quite frankly, the hard conversations are where we grow the most in life. And the big thing, guys, settling for comfort. I just know too many guys who are just looking for

Christ-Powered Effort Over Comfort

Chris Grainger 10:37

the path of least resistance. And I get it, I was there too, man. The path of least resistance is fun is quite frankly, it can be fun. It's easy, right? But that's not what we're called to be. We're supposed to be out here ambassadors for Christ, and that's that that's that's gonna cost something. That means we've got to start proclaiming Christ boldly and like living it out, man. That means we got to start teaching what God's word actually says. Maybe you know, Chris, I'm not called to be a teacher. Okay, but you can do it at home. But it also means leading others towards maturity. But here's the thing: we can't lead others to maturity until we decide we want to mature ourselves and put in the work ourselves. And we have to do that strenuously over and over. And guess what? It doesn't happen casually, it doesn't happen occasionally. This has to happen on a consistent basis. And I've personally seen this with me and my walk. I'm growing with my in my discipleship journey because I am putting in the reps, and these are reps that nobody sees. This is not the stuff that gets out there and the line within us land and all this other stuff. No, I'm putting in the time with him on my own. Because it's important. It's important. It has to be with everything that I got, it needs to be with everything that you have. So, like, think about this, man. Like, what are you striving hearts for right now? Because whatever the answer to that question is, man, that's what's shaping your life. And it could be a noble type thing. Like, you know, I'm trying to get healthy so I can be there for my family. I'm like, I get it. All that stuff, I'm not saying that's not important, but is that the priority? We have to recognize that, okay, and make sure we have these things aligned. Because Paul is making the mission very clear in this scripture, right? He's like, look, don't keep spending time, wasting your time, chasing things that ultimately don't matter. Focus on what is most important. I mean, again, look at this verse. He is the one we proclaim Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end, I strenuously contend with the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Guys, I don't know. If verses like that, if that doesn't get your blood going, right, like I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you. Because just soaking in scripture like that is such a big deal. But here's the question you got to wrestle with. Where are you softening truth to avoid offending others? Now, look, if you're so worried about being popular, okay, and brownie points and smiles and cupcakes and Cadillacs and rainbows and all the stuff in your life, you're gonna have a hard time. We're gonna have a hard time truly walking out what God's calling us to do. There's gonna be some friction here. I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in guys that I'm trying to help at the lion. But we have to recognize this is not something we can put off. Stop softening it out there, guys. Let God's word, hey, you're like my old buddy Adam says, you know, I just I just deliver the mail. That's it. But start start delivering the mail on a consistent basis and let the word be the word. Don't deviate from it, don't add to it, right? We don't want to pull away and we don't want to add to it. Just let it be what it is and stand firm on it and teach it with all you got. Because, fellas, if you do that, that's what it means to take a step in in the direction that he's called us to do. And fellas, that's what it means to unleash the line within. This is what we talk about all the time. And if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you're hearing this, and some for some reason you've you've kind of got in on this podcast and you're liking the message, and you're like, man, this verse makes sense now. I'm starting to start to get that. First of all, thank you. There are lots of other podcasts you'd be listening to. But about the fact that you're listening to this podcast right now, and you're not a Christian, I will just say this. God is working on you, buddy. I don't know why, but God is working on you. Or I don't know what you've done, rather. I know why God's working on you, because He's trying, He's calling you to Him. But there's some things you got to recognize to be true. And first thing I need you to hear from one brother to another is that you are made in His image and God loves you. And you may not think that. You may think there's a whole lot of jacked up in you, and you know, you know what? You may be

A Clear Call To Salvation

Chris Grainger 15:17

right. There probably is a whole lot of stuff jacked up in you. It is in me, too. Right? But the difference is I know, based off my Bible, that I'm made in the image of God. And so are you. And I just want you to hear me, man. So what you see in the mirror, what you see, well, and you see this jacked up brother in the mirror who's got all these scars and these past traumas and whatever they may be. God doesn't see that. He sees his son. Now you have these scars and all these things in your, and these things have happened in your life because of the result of the fall. Because sin entered the world. And like sin, very simply, it just something that separates us from God, man. That's what happened. So Adam and Eve sinned that separated them from the garden. And ever since then, there is this gap between a holy and righteous God and us. And the problem is for most guys, we try to close this gap on our own. We just think we can be good and just help people and give money, right? Just be just be a good person. And like I'm not against anti-good. I don't, I'm not saying that. I like for for a guy to be good and to live out what God's calling to do, right? But I'm just telling you, those actions in of themselves are not going to earn your salvation. They're not going to cover the sin that you have in your life. Right? So, all right, Chris, you're telling me like there's no no amount of good I can do. You're right. So it doesn't even matter if like I've never killed anybody compared to people on death row, like I'm I'm doing pretty good. You're still telling me that doesn't, that's not enough. Right. It's not. The penalty of sin is of sin is death. Scripture tells us that. So we can't do it for ourselves. We can't overcome it for ourselves. So we have this innate sin nature that is just in us as men. We can't coach ourselves up to overcome it. What in the wide world of sports are we supposed to do? That's a natural question. And what we're supposed to do is recognize that we can't do this for ourselves. We need someone to do for us what we can't do. Therefore, we need a Savior to step in and do for us what we can't do, right? This is where Jesus enters the scene. Guys, this is what it's all about. Jesus, who left heaven on a mission for us, right? Was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies, did all the teachings, the miracles, showed us with absolute proof that he is the Messiah. And then the most important part, willingly went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. This is Jesus. He went to He didn't deserve to do that. He never sinned, but he took on sin. And they nailed him to a cross, they crucified him, and he died. And this perfect blood, fellas, covers all the sin of the world. And guess this, think about this for a second. When he was hanging on that cross, he was thinking about you. He was thinking about you. He was doing this for you. He was the perfect payment, the atonement, the propitiation. He paid it all right there on the cross. He was pierced for our transgressions. Then they took him down. So he died. He didn't pass out or faint. Like Jesus died, right? Then they took him, they laid him in a tomb. And they closed that tomb up. And guys, if the story ends there, like what are we even doing here? Okay, because he's just another nice guy who died. It would have been unfortunate, but yeah, he was a good teacher, then he died. But that's not where the story ends. Not even close. Because yes, while he died on the tomb, three days later he rose. And that's the fundamental difference between what we believe to be true as Christians, and what the rest of the world is trying to pursue on their own. We worship and put our hope in a living savior. And I want you to put your hope in a living savior. That's my prayer for you. Like maybe thinking like, Chris, man, that sounds awesome. Like, great. What do I even do? Bro, first of all, it's very simple. Just humble yourself. Just recognize, man, that I'm I'm a sinner. Like I got sin in my life. Like, don't try to compare your sin to other people's sin. This is a you thing. I got sin in my life. Chris, I recognize I got sin, but I also believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I fully believe that. I've heard it enough times now, and maybe there's something that I've shared here that's made it very clear for you that you recognize that Jesus is who he says he is. C.S. Little says he's either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. I'm going with Lord. I'm going with the guy who overcame death. My prayer is that you are too. So just confess that. Admit that, right? Just fully believe that he is the Messiah. And you can just confess, and then at that point, you confess him as Lord over your life. Look, this is Lord over your life, not Lord over Sunday for an hour or two. Or maybe if you're a super Christian on Wednesday for an hour or so. I'm talking about every day of the week, everywhere that you're at, whether you're at church, whether you're at home, bathroom, bedroom, boardroom, plant floor, it doesn't matter. Wherever you're at, Walmart, the Lord knows we need some Jesus in Walmart, right? Wherever we are, he's Lord of our life. Financial decisions, marriage decisions, he has to become Lord. So we can't go down into baptism and hold out hold out our wallet. It don't work that way. It's we we're submitting everything to him. And when we do, bro, bro, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells. And then you're gonna have new life, new eyes, new vision. You'll be able to see things so much clearerly now. Because you'll be guided and directed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And as you grow, just like we're talking about in this scripture today, and mature in your walk with Christ, and that vision gets clearer and clearer. That conviction stirs more and more. And that's how what we call that's your discipleship journey. That's sanctification in process. But it starts with you making a decision today to surrender your life to Jesus. And my prayer is that wherever you are, if you haven't done that, make the step. Take this step right now. And just pray a simple prayer. So that simple prayer is Father, I recognize that I'm a sinner in need of a savior. I recognize my ways are not your ways. And I recognize, Lord, there's nothing I have done to earn this free gift that you've given me. I do believe in you. I do believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I do believe He is my personal Lord and Savior. And I'm confessing to you right now, Lord, that I follow you. I'm just going to follow you. And I may not even know what that means right now, Father, but I just I'm putting my hope and my trust in you as my Lord and Savior. I love you. Thank you for forgiving me when I don't deserve it. And Father, just I'm all in. I'm all in. Or I'm praying this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. So like saying a prayer like that, maybe you just prayed that prayer. Like, guess what? You're in, bro. You're in. Like, should you go through the waters of baptism? Yep, you should. You should figure that out. But the most important step is right now. Because this is the moment you that you right now have experienced salvation. Now the Holy Spirit is indwelling within. Okay, so look, if you just accepted Christ, I want to hear from you. Like, shoot, send me an email, Chris at thelionwithin.us. I'd love to hear from you straight up. I want to know. Like, what's going on? Where you're at. I'll help you get plugged into a church. I've got a bunch of resources I want to send you. The Lion is over. We are abundantly blessed with resources, and we'd love to send them to you just to help you with your discipleship journey to get started with some scriptures to memorize. Okay? So look, send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. All right. So, guys, next episode is going to be baller. I'm not going to share any details on the guest, but it's going to be baller. Come, check it out. Hopefully you'll enjoy it. Head over to thelionwithin.us. That's thhelionwithin.us. Okay, check all the resources out on the lion, daily SKO, Lion's Den Leadership Mastermind. Put your application in for the mastermind if you like. Head over to Amazon, get our book, Unleashing the Lion Within. Hey, if you don't like reading books and you like audio books, guess what? We have an audio version. And your boy wrote it. I read it. Okay, not only did I wrote it, I read it as well. So there you go. It's on Audible. So you can check it out there. And open up the Bible app. Open up the Bible app, search for the Lion Within Us, follow us there. Guys, we're putting so many plans out on the Bible app. I'm writing all the time. I'm just,

Resources Support And What’s Next

Chris Grainger 24:20

God has just given me these topics. I'm getting a lot of topics from the guys in the Lion Within Us. And I'm just, he's just pouring out. And guys are being encouraged on a daily basis about what God is doing through the Lion. If it just helps you in the smallest way in your walk with Christ, then that's what it's all about. So to open up the Bible app, search for the Lion Within Us, you'll find us there. Okay. So all these resources, guys, we have live events, we have all sorts of things that are happening. We have the weekly roar. I don't know how many tens of thousands of guys have signed up with a weekly roar. It's crazy. It's just an email that comes out every Monday. It just gives you a little bit of encouragement to start your week. It's going to be a whole lot better than anything you get from any of these weekly stuff that you got from the secular world that's out there, right? So, guys, all this stuff is what we do to help you in your walk, to help you in your journey, to come alongside you. And it's all found at thelionwithin.us. So thanks for hanging with me today. If you want to support the show, thelionwithin.us slash donate. We would love to have your support. It would be means so much to us. So consider that. Or whatever it is, share with others, man. Share this stuff out with others. That's how we spread the message. You know, we're not backed by some big, you know, back end or types of uh venture capitalist. No, this is just this is ground root stuff, bro. It's just groundroot stuff, and God's doing a mighty work with it. We're just gonna be obedient, take, and take the next step he's called us to, and steward well where he's where he's shown us to go. And that's what this is all about. All right, guys. Give us a rating review if you don't mind. Other than that, have a great day. Thanks for hanging. We'll see you next time and keep on leashing the lion within. If there's one habit that can change your home, it's this when a husband prays with his wife, not because it's a magic formula, but because it recenters your marriage under God's authority and care. And let's be honest, a lot of guys want to do it, but most don't know how to start without it feeling awkward. Maybe you tried it before and it felt forced, or maybe you've never tried it because you don't even know what to say. Or maybe you're thinking, man, I'm not a pastor, I'm just a guy. And that's why we created this guide. It's our how to pray with your wife. Simple guide. It's biblical, it's practical, and it's designed to help you start praying with your wife in a way that actually feels natural. So it's a five-section guide and it gives you a simple framework to get started. Okay, it makes sure everything is grounded in scripture, and it also has a powerful PDF that you can pull up whenever you need,

How To Pray With Your Wife

Chris Grainger 27:06

especially when things get off, because they're gonna get off. That's normal. So this is all about reclaiming your marriage and reclaiming the spiritual leadership reigns of your home. Because praying with your wife is one of the strongest ways to fight for unity, to build trust, and to write the ship when life starts to pull you off a course. So if you're ready, get access today at the lionwithin.uslash guides. That's thelionwithin.us slash guides, and start unleashing the lion within at home by leading your marriage through prayer.