Welcome And Spiritual Kickoff

Chris Grainger 1:02

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, fellas, it's your spiritual kickoff episode. Let's get into it. Okay. So the scripture of the week this week is the book of John, first chapter, fifth verse. So John 1 5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Guys, that's a powerful verse right there. So we're going to see how we can simplify and apply that to our life right here today as Christian Man. I got my simplifying apply shirt on. Let's go. All right, guys. By the way, we also have the daily spiritual kickoffs. If you enjoy the SKO episodes on the podcast each and every week, thank you first and foremost. But we do these Monday through Friday, every day. It's like clockwork, baby. We crank these SKOs out. We'd love to have you join us. That's our free way that we invite you into the Lion Within Us, a way that we can serve you in a meaningful way. The LionWithin.us, click on daily SKO. You'll get our app. You'll also get access to our prayer request space. We have a prayer call every Monday. We would love to pray for you, for you to join us, just to take part of that. You also, if you're in the continental U.S., have a free gift. We just love to give it to you. We'll drop that in the mail. So sign up for the daily SKO, come to the prayer space, and claim your free gift. And it's all for free. That's what we do to try to serve, okay? All right, let's get into it looking at the scripture, okay? Because this week we're gonna be talking about a topic that's not very

Daily SKO And Prayer Support

Chris Grainger 2:30

fun, but it's meaningful and it's worth exploring. Depression. Depression. And we're gonna see how we can combat the depression that so many guys are fighting and battling with God's word. So let's get into it. So this is in John, okay? First of all, where is John? We want to make sure we understand that. We don't want to just take anything for granted. John is in the New Testament. Got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. If you get to uh uh Acts, you went a little bit too far, okay? So that's where we're gonna find it. This is the first chapter. So at the very beginning, when the the apostle John, uh, or the disciple John rather, when he starts writing, okay. Now, I love this verse. Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And just like sin, guys,

John 1:5 Sets The Theme

Chris Grainger 3:20

depression thrives in the dark. It just does. And for me, both depression and sin grow stronger when I keep them concealed and hidden from others. I'm very prone to lie to myself. And I and that starts down this rabbit trail of thinking that by me staying silent, I'm actually protecting and not adding burdens to the people around me, my loved ones, primarily my wife and my kids, right? It doesn't make sense, I know, but when your mind's cloudy and you're trying to navigate in the dark, man, these things can be destructive, can't they? Let's just be real. It happens. It happens. Now, I love using this analogy, so I try to use it whenever I can. But I use it, it's it's called a beach ball. The beach ball analogy, okay? Growing up, I used to love to go to the beach with my parents. Like we would go to Carolina Beach all the time. We absolutely loved it. We'd play with a beach ball, we'd have all our toys out on the beach. I just that was just a fun season of life, right? And I remember me and my brother, we'd go out there and we would see who could hold, you know, beach balls or or or or um what's their what do they call boogie boards, things like that. Who how can we hold that stuff under the water the longest? Because anytime you get two guys in any area, we're gonna do what? We're gonna compete. This is what we do, right? So we we did that. We compete. Uh and that competition really started would ramp up. But there are a few factors when you do this, when you go to the beach ball and you try to hold it underwater that that make it tricky. First, we're at the ocean, right? We're not doing this in a pool, we're

Why Depression Grows In Secrecy

Chris Grainger 5:02

doing this in the ocean. So you got waves, you got currents, and if anybody's in North Carolina, like that, those currents can be unpredictable. And then our mom did the best she could to protect us from sunburn. So we were always covering sunscreen, and like we're talking about 80s and 90s guys. No, that's spray on crap. Like this was the greasy kind, right? That never rubs in, but it's there to protect you, right? And then you add in a slippery beach ball to the mix, and uh it this was something straight out of American Ninja Warrior before American Ninja Warrior was a thing, bro. I'm telling you, okay. Now, at first, it's not too hard to push that ball underwater. Okay? You could push that thing underwater and you could get it going. But eventually, what would happen? The current would shift, right? And when that current would shift, maybe a wave would catch us off guard. And eventually that my grip would start to slip. Remember those greasy hands from that sunscreen lotion, right? And every time when it slipped and it came up, guess what happened? It came straight up and it smacked us right in the face. Every single time. Now, why in the wide world of sports would I bring up a beach ball at the beach, uh holding it underwater when we have this idea of depression? And we're talking about depression. Well, because most guys, including me, we try to manage it the same way, bud. We push it down. We wrestle with it alone, where no one can see, right? Hold it underwater. You can't see what's going on underwater to fight this happening. And then we convince ourselves that we can handle it. But the harder we try to bury it, guess what? The more control it gets over us. The more you push that beach ball down, the more pressure's coming back up, buddy. And eventually it's gonna come bursting to the surface. Unfortunately, with depression, it can often have painful consequences. And that's why John, right here, is such good news. Because he's reminding us that in Christ we have the light of men and the light that destroys darkness. So, hope, fellas, isn't the absence of darkness, it's the presence of light. And that light cannot be overcome. Recognize that, cling to that, hold to that. Depression whispers that darkness is permanent. That's just the way things are. But holding it down in secret is like trying to hold that beach ball underwater. Sooner or later, it's gonna break free. It just is. So, what's my encouragement to you as we think about this scripture and depression in general? Let it go, man. Let it go. Bring the struggle to the light. Just bring it there. Confess it. And watch how that act honestly strips the darkness of its power. Because once it's in the light and the light begins to shine, that darkness can't do anything anymore. It says darkness cannot comprehend it. Like that should be super encouraging to you right now. The darkness we feel when we're battling depression has no chance of survival when exposed to the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, look, I'm not naive enough to think that what we're just talking about with this one verse is a quick fix to depression. I get that. It's not an end-all

Hope Means Light Is Present

Chris Grainger 8:38

be all, it's not a cure. But I do believe that when we reflect on scripture, when you walk in the light and you refuse to fight alone, you can change everything. You can change everything. And to a brother out there who's listening to my voice, and maybe this verse is resonating, and this whole topic of depression is resonating, and you're like, man, this is me, it's where I'm at right now. Please hear me. You are not alone. You're not alone. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit shines brightly in your journey. That you find brothers in Christ that will walk with you. That you do never feel that feeling of condemnation that the evil one wants you to feel. He wants you to feel condemned. Forget that guy. Bring it to the light. Bring it to the light. Look at our verse again. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness has not overcome it. Darkness has no power over light. Whatsoever. Jesus, I'm the light of the world. This is who he is. This is what he offers. When you freely accept the gift that he is offering you guys, so I'm telling you, man, that beach ball analogy just makes so much sense. And we got to stop holding it under and trying to wrestle and trying to just see on above the surface, like above the water, everything looks fine. Well look calm. Underneath there's a battle. And if that's you right now, and you're fighting it alone right now, and no one knows about it right now, and your wife doesn't know about it, and your children don't know about it, your parents don't know about it, your grandparents don't know about it, your coworkers don't know about it, your buddies don't know about it. What are you doing? Because when things break loose, and eventually they will, man, just like that old beach ball, it's gonna smack you right in the face. And I don't want that for you. I genuinely care and I want better for you. And better is available when we recognize the power that comes when we submit our life fully to the Holy Spirit. And we let him guide and direct us. And then he reminds us that there's no condemnation for those in him. Period. So I don't know where you're at. I don't know what you're battling, but I know we're all battling some different things. And I want you to think about this. Where are you hiding struggles instead of bringing them to the light? That's our question this week. Where are you hiding struggles instead of bringing them into the light? If you need help, if you need encouragement, if you need someone to talk to, this is why we built the lion to walk with brothers like you, side by side, locking arms, taking care of the ones that are hurt, the strong ones, we put the strong ones on the outside. We put the weak ones in the middle, and we walk with them. But look, if you don't have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, if you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you're missing out. You're missing out on the greatest gift I can ever tell you about. And you have to honor recognize that you are made in the image of God. You may think you're made in the image of like something something pretty bad, right? Like I'm made in, I'm I'm made out of something, Chris, but it ain't God. I'm like, no, bro, you are. You're made in the image of God.

The Question To Face This Week

Chris Grainger 11:50

Are you broken? Yeah, because we all are. Because there is a sin nature that runs in every single one of us. Eric Church sings that song coming from a long line of sinners like me, right? We all are. We're all sinners. Every single one of us. And that's just something that separates us from God. That's all it is. Don't complicate it. Don't make it more than it has to be. Don't minimize it. But don't try to build this thing up. We're just sinners, right? And we need a savior. And quite simply, you need a savior. And I'm just telling you, if you don't have Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you're missing out. Because Jesus came on a rescue mission for you from evil and for the entire

The Gospel And A Prayer

Chris Grainger 12:25

world to show us, to, to pave the path of salvation, to give it to us, a free gift of salvation. He was born of the virgin, did all the miracles, the teachings, showed us that he was the Messiah. Then he went to the cross, willingly died for me, for you, for the whole world. Then they laid him in the tomb, and three days later he rose because that's who we worship. We have Jesus defeated death. He lives, and we have a living Savior, not some dead guy somewhere. That is Christ. That's who we believe. And that's who we put our faith, our trust, and our hope in. And that's what I want for you. To put your hope in Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Now look, if you've never done that, and you're listening to the lion for some reason, I don't know, maybe the topic of depression just like gripped you, or you didn't even maybe you didn't even know this was on depression. It was on depression. But you you pop this thing open, next thing you know, you're listening to it, and this this old guy from North Carolina is talking about this verse and tying it to depression and beach balls, and it just makes sense. It just does. I don't know how the Holy Spirit works. I know sometimes when I talk, it just makes sense for guys. And I don't get it, but it but it's just the way God's using that. That's how he uses me. So if He's if He's using me right now to share the gospel with you, and you've never confessed Him as your Lord and Savior, bro, let's go. Do it right now. Let's pray and invite Jesus into your life. So, Lord, I don't know who's listening. Maybe there's something just in the simple way that I shared the gospel that's making a whole whole lot of sense to somebody right now. I don't know. I just know in this moment right now, they're listening. And you're I feel like you're speaking through me. And you're speaking directly to them. Whether they're on a treadmill or in a truck or in a line at the grocery store, I don't know where they're at. But I know one thing a life without you is just missing. We miss so much without you, God. And I never want anyone to be separated from you. And if for some reason there's a brother or sister right now listening and they don't have that relationship with you, I pray that they recognize that they are sinners. They are. But we all are. And I pray they recognize that you are the Messiah. And they believe that in their heart of hearts. And right now, Lord, they're making that decision of whether or not to confess you, Lord, of their life. And I pray if they are saying that they are confessing you as Lord and Savior, that you give them peace, encouragement, that you put people in their path that's gonna come alongside and walk with them. That's gonna disciple them. I also pray hedge protection around them because the evil one is pretty frustrating right now because they're making this decision. Because they were on team Satan, but now they're on team Jesus. And that's we're celebrating about. Lord, I don't know, maybe used a line in this podcast today for one person. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. I pray, God, for that one person. I'm so thankful for you and for what you do and for loving us right where we're at. And I pray this according to your will in Christ's name. Amen. So look, guys, if you're battling depression and you just accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you took a massive step forward. Now, is it gonna instantly get you know cupcakes and Cadillacs? No. It's not. But you're on a path to healing now because you have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit working within you. And I'm so thankful you took that step. I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Chris at the lionwithin.us. Be an honor to hear from you. I have some resources. I just want to give them to you. Just want to give them to you. Just want to pray with you. Help you figure out maybe if there's a church that you want to consider, whatever it looks like. Just mainly just want you to know you're not alone. You're not alone. There are guys all over now that have found a lion through

Email Chris And Get Connected

Chris Grainger 17:00

God. God's doing it all, bro. Like, I'm not that uh I'm not that sharp. And for for got for what's happening right now to lion, God's hands all over it. But maybe you're walking in the darkness right now and you're looking for that light. I will tell you this. We will do everything within our power to Lion to point you to it. Now the light is him. It ain't the lion, it's him. But we'll do everything we can to help you know and understand what that light is and how it could dramatically change your life forever. So we'd love to hear from you. I hope you I hope you email me. And if there's anything we can do to serve, please let me know. Even if you just want to email me a prayer request. Maybe you're a member, you're not a member, maybe you're just a listener of the podcast. Thank you first and foremost. I don't want to go without saying that. But if you got prayer requests, email it to me. Reach out. It would be an honor to go to battle for you as a prayer warrior. And I promise you, if I tell you I pray over it, it's been prayed over. I'm not one of these brothers that just say, I'll be praying for you and just like move on to the next thing. I legit stop my day all throughout today, all the time, to pray. Because guys are coming to me on a regular basis. And I believe in it and I've seen the power of prayer. So I'd love to hear from you, okay? And if you want to pray with us on a regular basis every week, join a daily SKO. Go click thelionwithin.us and join that daily spiritual kickoff. Take part of that. It's free, bro. You got nothing. Literally nothing to lose. If you don't like it, delete it. Well, so what? There's no commitment here. Like there's no contracts, man. We ain't Verizon or ATT. We're the Lion. We just want to walk with you. Now look, if I can serve or help you or your men's group, reach out. I'm getting asked to do that more and more, which is an honor. And I would love to do that or consider doing that for you and your men's group. If logistically it works out and we can figure out how to make these things happen, we just want to do it, bro. We just want to do it. We got all sorts of resources. We have the book, we have uh launching party, launching kits for the books. We have all sorts of ways that we can help you and your men's group get going. So if you need a little bit of charge, if you need someone to come in and just drop that little firecracker and blow up everything to get it going, hey, I can do that. I would rather enjoy it. Not because I want to stir up something, but because I want you guys to get stirred up for Christ. And if I could be a small little catalyst in that, and praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So reach out. I want to hear from you. Again, my email is Chris at thelinewithin.us. Go to the website, thelionwithin.us, check out all our resources there. Check out the Bible app, guys. We've got all the resources on the Bible app. Wonderful ways to connect with us there. I mean, that that thing has just been phenomenal how God is just moving with that ministry. So hopefully you enjoy it. So thanks for hanging out. Look, on our next episode, we'll be talking about this topic of depression even more. I'm just a guy who's battling depression. And I'm going to walk you through this with some more reflections and some more thoughts. And hopefully you'll be encouraged. So even if you're not in like battling depression right now, I'd encourage you to listen because there may be guys in your life that are. And we need to have that common language and understanding. And you never know. You never know how there could be something on the pod that gives you insight to a future conversation with a brother down the road. All right, fellas, get after it. Have a great one. Again, a lionwithin.us. Give us a rating review if you don't mind. Community Lions Den, Mastermind, all that stuff, fellas, all can be found at our website. We'll see you next time. And remember to keep unleashing the lion within. If there's one habit that can change a 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

Final Encouragement And Resources

Chris Grainger 21:50

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, especially when things get

How To Pray With Your Wife

Chris Grainger 22:06

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.usguides. That's thelionwithin.us slash guides. And start unleashing the lion within at home by leading your marriage through prayer.