Chris Grainger 1:34

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? So the scripture of the week this week is in the book of Joel, chapter 2, verse 25, and it says this I will repay you for the years the locusts of Eden, the great locusts and the young locusts, and other locusts and the locust swarm, my great army that I'm sending among you. Guys, it's a little great, it's a great verse. You may not be familiar with it. That's okay. We're gonna see how we can simplify and apply this to our life here as Christian men today on this spiritual kickoff episode. So I'm excited to have you here. Again, if you enjoy the spiritual kickoffs where we just try to take this God's word and help you simplify and apply it to your life, we do it Monday through Friday at The Lion Within. It's called the Daily SKO. So just head over to thelionwithin.us, click on that daily SKO now. You'll get it. You'll get that access to our platform.

Welcome And Weekly Scripture

Chris Grainger 2:29

You also have access to our prayer request space where we're praying with guys on a regular basis. I mean, this is a daily thing where guys are putting in prayer requests and they're being lifted up. Then every Monday, we have a prayer huddle. We'd love for you to come to that prayer huddle. It's a Google Meet, it's open, it's it's busy, it's a lot of stuff, but it's very intentional about praying for guys in a very meaningful way. And then if you're in the continental U.S., we'd love to send you a free gift. So that's all that is found, guys, at the lionwithin.us. Click on daily SKO and get started today. Okay. All right. This this verse, again, not one you're going to hear a whole lot on. I haven't necessarily can say that I've heard a sermon on this verse. It's got, I mean, the word locust is in here what five times. So it's a lot of locusts in here. And we're going to talk about it. And we first thing we need to understand is where is the book of Joel? Okay. So Joel is not one that you study a whole lot, but it's in the Old Testament. It's not it's one of the minor prophets. So it's going to be towards the the back of the Old Testament, uh, after Hosea and before Amos is where you're going to find the little the little book of Joel. Okay. So it's going to be important to just so you know where that's at. And I really appreciate when I look at this verse, the the depth of the promise that we see here. Okay. But it's important for us to just get just a little bit of context to understand what's going on here. So the prophet Joel was writing to a people who had experienced devastation. Okay. That massive

Where Joel Fits In Scripture

Chris Grainger 3:54

locust and invasion had basically ravaged the land. So it destroyed the crops. It stripped away all the food supplies. And it was leaving the people in just a in a really a place of despair, man. I missed it. I don't know if you've actually seen locusts. It's not a fun scenario when they take over. So what had once brought life and provision had been consumed by these locusts. And the destruction was so severe that Joel used it right here, not only as a literal event, but also a spiritual picture for us of what sin, rebellion, and when we try to stiff arm God can do to within a nation and within our heart. And that's the big connection that we're going to try to make here, okay? Because the locusts, the locusts, what do they represent? Really, the locusts represent loss. Loss of joy, loss of peace, security, hope, all those things. And one of the hardest realities about destruction is that it's very rarely like isolated. Just think about how like uh cancer work and stuff like that. I mean, cancer doesn't just stay there. The problem with cancer is that it spreads, right? And that's what we see in life. And this pain often has a ripple effect. And hurt has a way of touching far more than just the original wound. Like it may it may start and originate at this spot, but it spreads out. And when we're wounded deeply, especially by the people that we love, it impacts the way that we trust, doesn't it? It definitely impacts the way we love others or communicate or don't communicate in my case quite often, right? And even engage with the world around us. That's why the phrase, you guys have heard this, hurt people, hurt people. It's just true. There's so much truth in that. Brokenness that remains unhealed eventually spills onto others. And if we're honest guys, many, we just know exactly what it feels like to look over parts of our lives and to see evidence of locust damage. It's just there. Maybe it's relationships that have been damaged by pride, or years that we had lost to addiction. Or maybe it could be your marriage and it's been strained by the selflessness of just being selfish in your marriage, right? Or betrayal. Betrayal's a big one. Anger's a big one for lots of guys that I told. Well, I was literally in one of our prayer meetings today, and the guy was like, bro, I'm just mad right now. I'm just angry. Help me pray against this. So, guys, we struggle with this all the time. And there's seasons where fear and shame and bitterness or sin start consuming what felt healthy and alive. I mean, literally in that prayer call, he was like, I don't get it. Last week I was fine. This week I'm just like, I'm in this dark place. I don't understand it. And that type of destruction, guys, can feel demoralizing because once really something's been eaten and taken away, we start to wonder, man, is it ever going to be restored? Is restoration even possible? But that's why taking God's word is so important, particularly verses like this, because it can help us. Because God is not minimizing the destruction here. So don't misread that. He acknowledges the destruction fully. Okay? The years were truly lost. The pain was legitimate. The devastation really did happen. Yet in

Locusts As A Picture Of Loss

Chris Grainger 7:41

the middle of that reality comes a promise from the good father. I will restore. I will restore. Not because his people earned it or because God owed them something. But restoration is part of who God is. And that ties, man, so deep, fellas, into the idea of reconciliation within the kingdom of God. Because let's just face it, here on earth, reconciliation is hard, complicated. Sometimes it feels impossible. And you know, sometimes on the converse, you do have relationships are restored beautifully. Other times, it's just like, nope, not gonna happen. Because it takes two willing hearts, and guess what? You can't control the response of another person. I don't care what you do. You're never gonna force your will on someone else. And sometimes wounds they just hurt for a long time. And the consequences linger for the actions that we take. And reality is some relationships never will fully recover this side of heaven. But guys, reconciliation with God, that's a whole nother story. That's always available. And that truth should matter tremendously to you. Because even when earthly relationships remain fractured, guess what? Our Heavenly Father never abandons us. He just doesn't. He's not going to forsake us, particularly when we're in the middle of our brokenness. What does he do? He invites us back into a relationship with him again and again and again through what? Grace, repentance, and surrender. And surrender, fellas, for me, that's where healing begins. It just does. And most of us guys out here, if we're honest, we desperately want to do what? We want to control things. We want to have our outcomes explained. Or we want immediate restoration, right? If we can't get the immediate restoration, we at least want to know the timeline with guarantees along that timeline. Are you picking up what I'm putting down right here? But healing rarely goes in the soil of control. Okay. Healing grows when we finally loosen our grip and just trust God. Particularly with the parts of our lives that we cannot fix ourselves. That doesn't mean, fellas, that healing is instant because it's not. Those scars don't disappear overnight. If you guys got scars like I do, you can see this. Those scars sometimes are there forever. But it also doesn't mean that God owes us an easier life. Because reality is, when we look at it, we owe God everything. And what we get, guys, is His lovingly offer to restore comes through Christ. He still rebuilds hearts, he still renews the minds and redeems the broken stories and can breathe breath into the places we thought were too damaged to recover. And the more birthdays and trips around the sun that I get to have, the more I realize restoration doesn't exactly look like the way I expected. Sometimes God does restore relationships. Sometimes he restores peace or purpose. And sometimes he restores identity of year after you have years of shame or confusion. But I can tell you this God never waste surrendered pain. He just doesn't. The locusts may consume years of your life. I sure hope they don't, but they they may. But they don't get the final word. Our failures, our wounds, our shame, our heartbreak, none of that gets the final word. Guess what gets the final word? God. God does. And we see a picture of this promise that is woven throughout scripture. And it's that our Father is still in the business of restoring what feels impossibly broken. I'm telling you, not on our timeline, not as we expected always or imagined, but according to his goodness, wisdom, and love. And that's the hope that these were these couple little words here in Joel is showing us. The locust may come, guys, but restoration, man, it's still possible. So the question of the week this week that really we want to wrestle with is what control are you refusing to surrender fully to God? Now I don't know what the answer to that question is, but I know for every one of us we got something that we're probably holding on too much to or too tightly to. Remember, that closed fist, that that clenched fist, guys, yeah, you can't something you won't you won't be able to some someone can't take that out of your hand for sure when you've got your fists clenched around it, but nothing can come in it either. And God wants that open-handed posture so that we can receive what he wants us to receive, and things can go from us, things that he wants to take from us. That's such a big deal. But the whole it all starts. This peace with

God’s Promise To Restore Years

Chris Grainger 13:11

God and restoration and forgiveness really begins at the moment in our life when we surrender our life to him as our Lord and Savior. Because if you're trying to find peace on this earth, I'm telling you, and you're trying to find it without God, you're gonna come up empty-handed. And I just I see this, you know, Phil Robertson said this over and over and over how the rarest commodity on earth is peace and mind. And it's a great saying, but doggone it, it's true. It's true. Why do you think so many people out there, fellas, just think about this for a second? There are so many people on this planet who have, from a worldly standpoint, they've won the game of life. They have more money in their bank account than they know what to do with. Maybe they have just been blessed with really good genetics and health and and are able to just have a wonderful career with doing things that they love to do, uh, and and and and again, not having to worry a whole lot about uh things of this world because you know, financially there there's a lot of security. And you and oftentimes when you find people in that situation, think Hollywood, you find out that deep down they're miserable and they're lacking, and they're wondering, what else is there in life? And the reason is, guys, we're never gonna find our purpose in things of this world. We're spiritual beings. We we have a greater purpose than anything here. So, no, there is not a number in the bank account that's gonna bring you happiness. It may bring temporary happiness, but it's gonna flee. It's gonna go away because something's gonna change. That number's gonna grow or that new target's gonna be gonna be out there, right? But the peace that passes all understanding does come into your life when God is at the center and when you genuinely surrender everything to Him. And I can't force you to do this, I can only just point you to the truth of what God has for you and encourage and implore and in some ways beg you to consider God's ways are just gonna be better than yours ways. Now I'm not saying that you're not smart. I'm sure you're smart, I'm sure you're intelligent, I'm sure you have all sorts of great ideas on what God wants on things to do. But the main question is, is it from God? Are you taking the steps of obedience that God has asked you to do, or are you chasing the glitz and the glamour of this world? The problem with the glitz and the glamour of this world is quite often it looks too much like a like a fish hook. I mean, that thing is shiny, it's very glittery, it looks enticing. The problem is when you bite it, that's the moment. When you get what you're chasing, that's the moment when you realize, uh oh, it has a hook in it, and it's pulling me away. And this is what the world does to us. This is what the evil one is really good at. Again, still, kill, and destroy his only motive against us. And he's using the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to do that. So to be able to combat that and actually find joy and peace and contentment in our life, we have to recognize no, it's not found in a bank account or another woman or another job or a truck or a motorcycle or a boat, any of these things, it's found when we are putting our trust and our hope in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit with us that's guiding us, that's directing us. That's when we have joy. And joy is not circumstantial. You know, that's when you can, personally speaking, when you can lose a daughter and hold her her lifeless body in your arm, there's no happiness in that moment. Zero.

Surrender Control To Start Healing

Chris Grainger 17:12

But there is joy. And the joy I had in that moment is because I knew that my daughter at that moment was with him. And she wasn't hurting anymore. And we can find joy in that room, and it doesn't make any sense. And joy is only found when the peace of God is in our life. And I'm telling you guys, if you don't have that joy, if you're angry and you're mad or you're fighting this, you find yourself in just too many arguments, it could just be because you're full of anger right now. And it could be you're full of anger because you have completely just stiff-armed God and say, you know, I'm gonna do things my way. I get you, bro. Like doing things your way, we all want that. But buddy, at some point, you're gonna run out. You're just not, you're gonna hit a wall, and your way ain't working. And I'm imploring you to consider his way. Because his way is so much better for us, guys. It's recognizing that, you know, what the guy that you see in the mirror, see that guy the way that God sees that guy. And this is a big deal because most of us don't, man. We see in the mirror, we see the worst versions of us. Or in our head, we play the worst versions of us over and over and over. Or I'm no good. I've I've done this, or I've done that, and all these things. We start just taking us out one at a time. Bop, bop, bop, bop. Next thing you know, we'll we're beating ourselves up. Like it's legit. It's like fight club. We're just sitting there hitting ourselves. Like, what are you doing? This is the way the enemy works, man. And if you do that enough, guess what? You start believing that crap. And once you start believing those lines long enough, he's got you right where he wants you. Because he's rendered you obsolete. You are no longer a threat. And I just want you to hear this. If you are hearing my voice right now and you have not surrendered your life to your Lordship to Jesus Christ, then you you are not a threat to the enemy. You're not. Quite frankly, you're you're on his team. Because you may not be actively doing all these terrible things, but just because you're sitting idly by on the enemy's team, you're completely ineffective in doing what God's calling you to do. So what do you have to do? You have to recognize, you know, first of all, that you are a sinner, that you have this sin issue in your life. You're like, well, Chris, I can't believe you said that. Why? I'm a sinner too. Every single one of us are sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. And if you don't believe that, then I can't help you. You probably just should stop listening to the lie within us. Because we all are sinners in need of a savior. And once we recognize that we're sinners, and also that there's nothing that we can do to overcome that sin in our life. It's not like we can do good deeds or pay money or

Real Peace Comes From Christ

Chris Grainger 20:11

go to church. That's a classic one. Well, I'll go to church. Okay, well, good, good deal. Okay, wonderful. That does not mean you surrender your life to Christ. That just means you go to a building once, maybe once or twice a month. Okay. So once we recognize there's nothing we can do for ourselves, you have to get to the point, like, okay, then what do I do? Like, how do I get this peace that you're talking about, Chris? That there's nothing that I can do. And I'll say, okay, I'm glad you got there, because now we can actually talk about the truth. And the truth is, yeah, there's nothing you can do for yourself, but Jesus has already did it for you. He already did it for you. He came to earth on a mission for you to save you from your sins and lived the perfect life and went to the cross willingly, gave his life up for you. Think about that for a minute. The king of the universe left heaven, came here knowing where he was headed to the cross to die for you because he loves you so much and for the redemption to pay for your sins. And this is what he did. But it didn't stop there because then he would have just been a dead guy on a cross. He would have just been a martyr. No, this is he actually rose three days later. Jesus rose. So, guys, we worship a living savior, not some dead guy. And that changes everything about everything. Once you believe that, because then it's no longer about you and what you do, it's about what Jesus and what he did for you on your behalf, because he loves you so much. And that truth, that fundamental truth, changes everything. And that's when, once you believe that and you confess him as Lord of your life, not just Lord over a Sunday, but Lord over your entire life, your bedroom, your boardroom, the bathroom, uh, your finance, the bank. Any more bees I can think of? Just kidding. All those things, right? Once you recognize that he's Lord over all the of your entire life, that's when he starts doing. The Holy Spirit does that work. And that's where you find peace and contentment. Because you're resting in him. Him, not you. And I don't know, for maybe for some reason, if you're hearing this for the first time, well, I don't know, maybe you heard the gospel a thousand times, but you're finally hearing it for the first time where it's making sense to you, praise the Lord. It's not my gift. God's just speaking through me right now. I'm just speaking his truth to you. And my prayer is that you respond. Because I can't do it for you. And guess what? When I get to heaven, I got one man that I'm responsible for. You know who that is? Me. I wish I could be responsible for my children and I could bring them in on my salvation rather, right? And and and they could just come in with me. Well, they're no, they're with me. It doesn't work that way in the internal scheme of things. Every man is responsible for himself. So when you get to heaven, you can't say, Well, my mom was a Christian. I went to church, my dad was, or my kids were. Well, they're gonna be like, Well, were you? Did you have a personal relationship with Christ? And at that moment, it's too late, bro. And I'm not trying to scare you or doom and gloom you. I'm just telling you the truth, and I care enough about you. You and here if you're listening to lines to tell you the truth. And I'm also caring enough about you to pray over you. So if you're ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and to confess Him as Lord over your life, let's just do it right now. You don't have to be sitting in some pew to do this or some magical altar call. Wherever you're at, you can be on a treadmill or in a trail or in traffic. I don't know where you're at. That's three T's. I got the the I'm making the everything rhyme today, apparently. So anyway, if that's where you're at, let's just pray together. And let's invite Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior. So, Father, that one listener, I don't know where they're at or what they're doing. I just know one thing. They're hearing the gospel more clearly than they ever have before. And I'm just so thankful for this opportunity and this platform to share the gospel to these men. So, Father, I just pray as they are now confessing you as Lord that we put a hedge protection around them. Because right now, they've taken the enemy's jersey off and they're putting your jersey on. And the enemy is not going to be happy about that.

Gospel Invitation And Prayer

Chris Grainger 24:36

But we also know he's on a losing team. So welcome to Teen Jesus. And I just pray you just give them wisdom, discernment. And there's anything that the lion can do to help them in their discipleship journey that is starting right now. I pray you show us that. We love you, God. We praise you. We do it all according to your will in Christ's name. Amen. So look, if you just accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want to hear from you, okay? I got a bunch of resources I'd love to send you just to get you started on your journey. Because look, again, the enemy is not going to go lightly. He's going to be coming at you. So I'm going to get you armed up. And also just want to encourage you. Just send you a word of encouragement, okay? So send me an email, Chris at the linewithin.us. I'd love to hear from you. And I'll get those resources out to you immediately, okay? But guys, hopefully you've enjoyed this one. I'm going to tell you what, the next episode, one of the people that is just so dear and near and dear to my heart. I'm so thankful for this man. And I'm just um excited to support him and a big project that he's been working on. So you want to listen to it. Hopefully you'll be encouraged by it. Please, guys, just check out the next episode. Also, thelion within.us is where you find all our resources, guys. Go there, check those resources out from a daily scripture kickoff to the leadership masterminds to the lion's den, to the book, to the Bible app, guys. We got so many ways we're serving and trying to equip you to be the leader that God intends you to be. Because I firmly believe in my heart of heart that when men lead the way the Bible intends, man, everything just gets better. Everything improves. And that's what we're here to do. We're here to help you to serve and equip you to be that man, to be that leader that God intends you to be. So don't believe the lies. All right, fellas. We'll see you next time. Give us a rating review. That helps big time. Uh, Spotify, Amazon, all the places, not Amazon, geez Louise. Um Spotify, YouTube. There you go, YouTube. Well, actually, I think we're on Amazon too. So anyway, wherever you're listening to the podcast, let us know. Give us a rating review. That would be helpful. We'll see you next time, fellas. Have a great day, and just keep on leashing the lion within. Trying to find genuine resources to help grow spiritually can feel overwhelming. At least it was for me. For the longest time, the support that I was looking for didn't exist. And I knew I wasn't alone. And at the same time, God was leading me to take action. That's why we built the Lion Within Us community, which is simply a place for Christian men to grow together in an honest, practical way that's always rooted in God's word. We've made it simple. We have our daily spiritual kickoff for that little boost to get you going. We have Bible studies focusing on discerning truth and applying it. And we have a private forum where you can speak freely amongst other guys who listen. And then we have things like Friday Forge, Couples Night, where we gotta tackle

Resources Community And Next Steps

Chris Grainger 27:36

the hard items that guys are craving to talk about, but most faith settings just refuse to explore these areas. So our community is about a growth mindset, intentionality, and transparency. Simply put, leave the mask at the door and come back you are. No perfect resume, just a willing heart and a desire to lead. I believe in what we've built simply because I've seen God use it to strengthen so many men. And I'd be honored to walk alongside you. So if you're ready, visit thelionwithin.us to explore the community. Start your free trial. Look around and see how this could help you lead with clarity and courage. So your journey begins here at the lionwithin.us. I look forward to seeing you inside the den.