Welcome And Scripture Kickoff

Chris Grainger 1:14

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 Psalm 88, verse 12. Will your wonders be made known in the darkness and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? All right, guys, that's the scripture. We're going to see how we can simplify and apply that to our life right here today as Christian men, okay? And ultimately, the line within us, we do this Monday through Friday at the within the line within us. It's called a daily spiritual kickoff. So if you enjoy these spiritual kickoff episodes that we have on the podcast, you may enjoy what we do Monday through Friday at The Lion Within Us. All right. So now you can find all that at thelinewithin.us. Click on daily SKO. From there, you can just sign up. If you're in the Continental U.S., we'd love to send you a free gift on our behalf. And also, not only do you get to Daily SKO Monday through Friday, you get access to our prayer request space. We'd love to pray for you and pray with you. Every Monday we have a prayer meeting and you're invited to it. So all that found, fellas, thelionwithin.us is an easy way to get started with us.

Why Psalm 88 Feels So Heavy

Chris Grainger 2:29

Okay. So we need to take a really a deep look at this verse. First of all, understanding where is the book of Psalms. We don't want to assume anything at the Lion Within Us. So that is in your Old Testament, okay? After the book of Job, before the book of Proverbs. So that's where you're going to find Psalms, typically about the middle of your Bible. This week's going to be a heavier week, guys. It's not going to be a light topic. It's not going to be a light guest. The guest is phenomenal. The topic is meaningful. And it's also challenging. And verses like this are really salient to his point. And that's why I wanted to pull this out, this one verse out, and talk about it for us as Christian men, and particularly about this land of forgetfulness. Okay. And I think what is pretty dangerous around us is the culture we're living in that hates God. And on top of that, not just that they hate that the culture hates God, but we are living in a world where the culture forgets him. They forget him. Now, if you were to ask that as a question, which is worse, hating God or forgetting him, most Christians would probably answer that hatred is worse. Because after all, let's just be honest. Like open rebellion against God, that's obvious. We don't want that. We can see it. We know that when it happens, well, we when it does happen, we can confront it, we can pray against it. But I really start thinking about this verse, and I think forgetfulness is different. It's more subtle being forgetful. Because forgetfulness doesn't announce itself, right? It slows, it kind of slowly settles in. It distracts us, it numbs us. It replaces eternal things, which we know to be true, with temporary things until one day we realize that we've drifted so much farther than we've ever intended. I mean, it's the whole mission-drift concept we talked about here in the line before. So this psalm is actually a pretty dark psalm. It's one of the darkest psalms in all of Scripture. And like the other psalms, it doesn't end with this triumphant declaration of hope. So the writer is Heeman, the Ezraite, he's overwhelmed by suffering and he feels abandoned, isolated, and surrounded by darkness. I don't know about you, but that just resonates. So when he asks, will your wonders be known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgiveness? He's actually talking about death and grave. The land of forgivefulness was a poetic description of the place where a person's voice would no longer be heard among the living. It's a place where memory stayed and testimony ceased. And his concern was simple.

Adam Rushing 5:21

If you boil it down to this, hey, if I'm gone, who's going to proclaim your works? Who's going to do it?

Chris Grainger 5:27

Yet while the original context points towards death,

Distraction Creates Spiritual Forgetfulness

Chris Grainger 5:32

the land, the phrase rather, the land of forgetfulness feels pretty relevant if we think about it today. Because we live in an age of unprecedented information and unprecedented distraction. Every day, just think about this. Every day, we consume headlines and social media, podcasts, and videos, and texts, and emails, and advertisements and marketing, opinion after opinion after opinion, and this streams and streams and streams of what? Of just content. And we know more facts than any generation before us. We do. There's so much information. I mean it's it's it's it's information overload. And yet many people seem further from the truth than ever. And you have to ask yourself, like, why? Why is that?

Adam Rushing 6:19

I'm telling you, bro, information is not the same as wisdom. It's just not. Knowledge is not the same as truth.

Chris Grainger 6:30

And constant consumption of the things of this world does not lead to spiritual growth.

Adam Rushing 6:38

In many ways, it actually creates a culture of forgetfulness because we're overwhelmed.

Chris Grainger 6:45

And then we forget God's wonders and faithfulness and promises and righteousness. We forget all that stuff. And if you think about the word righteousness, it carries the idea of the right standing with God. Like what is good, what is just, what is noble, what is God's character, what's aligned with Him. Yet much of the modern life really encourages us to trade God's righteousness for what? Temporary comfort of the world. Convenience over conviction. All day long. Convenience over conviction. Entertainment over discipleship. Comfort over obedience. This is the way churches work now. Many churches, not all of them, but lots of them. Lots of them work this way. It's all about comforting, right? Comforting to comfort him. I mean, that's and guys, this is a big deal. And the enemy understands this well. And one of its most effective tactics is not always direct rebellion. It's not always that.

Adam Rushing 7:42

Sometimes it's just distraction, man. Just distraction.

Chris Grainger 7:47

Well, what he needs to do is present enough alternatives, okay, to make us pick that path. Or offer enough temptations, or just create just enough noise that keeps people busy. And if you keep them busy, eventually they're gonna forget what matters most. It happens.

Adam Rushing 8:07

It happens to me. Just here running my family.

Chris Grainger 8:12

And the frightening thing when you really think about spiritual

The Drift You Don’t Notice

Chris Grainger 8:17

drift, is that you don't feel the drift happening when it's happening, right? You just don't notice it, right? You don't, I mean, nobody wakes up and says a day's a day, I'm gonna abandon my faith. It just doesn't happen. What does happen is we stop paying attention and we stop pursuing God with intentionality. Or maybe you just feel a bit lax on reading the word, like, huh, I don't really feel like reading the Bible today. I'll read tomorrow. And then tomorrow becomes the next day, then the next week, and the next thing you know, you never read your Bible except when you're sitting in a church. I'm just telling you, man, that's that's that's a dangerous posture to be in. Or maybe we just stop leaving family spiritually. Well, they don't enjoy Bible study anyway, so why waste my time? Or stop sharing your faith. Nobody's listening to me. So why in the world would I even share my faith? Because nobody cares. And little by little, guess what happens?

Adam Rushing 9:05

The land of forgiveness moves closer.

Chris Grainger 9:09

And as Christian men, we often look around and we're frustrated with how far society has drifted from God. And there's a truth in that observation. I'm glad we're frustrated when that happens. But before we start pointing fingers at culture, we've got to ask ourselves a harder question.

Adam Rushing 9:29

And guys, this is not easy to even say. Have I forgotten his wonders? Am I actively proclaiming his righteousness?

Chris Grainger 9:39

Because you start wrestling with questions like that, it will work on you, bro. Because it makes you wonder, man, have I become distracted by the same things that distracts everybody else? And the reality is, you know, if you think about the longevity of life in general, every single one of us will be forgetting by future generations. I mean, think about this for a second. Can you name five meaningful details about the lives of people four or five generations before you're in your lineage? I guarantee you can't do it. Right? Why? Not that they didn't do awesome things, they may have, but the world forgets. Accomplishments fade away, they just do possessions, what? They they come and go, they just disappear. And eventually you're just gonna be a leaf in the family tree. And that's just the reality of the brevity of life. But God's glory is worthy of being remembered forever. And we have to cling on to this. And he deserves men like us who refuse to be silent, men who proclaim his truth, and who just and really who remember his works and remember them to the point that we want to tell other people about it. And when we fail to do that, we miss a great opportunity, probably the greatest opportunities in our life. Because at the end of the day, the only thing we get to take to heaven with is guys is people and praises. That is it. That is it. Everything else stays here. There's no hearse connected to uh no you-haul connected to the hearse, rather, right? It's not there. And Psalm 88 is a wake-up call. Not just for culture that's

A Hard Look At Our Own Hearts

Chris Grainger 11:17

forgetting God, but for believers who have become spiritually passive, who brothers in Christ who have allowed distraction to replace that devotion that we know we need to have. And for us who have traded conviction for comfort?

Adam Rushing 11:33

And the answer, Psalm 88, 12, is found in us, guys.

Chris Grainger 11:40

It's found in us. Will his wonders be known in the darkness? Well, they will if we make them known. They should. Right? That we should be proclaiming this. Will his righteousness be remembered in the land of forgiveness? Yep. Because we're gonna be men who refuse to forget. And my prayer is that today that we gotta get our heads out of the sand. We gotta shake off this spiritual complacency that's around us, it's happening too stinking often. And we need to start becoming faithful mouthpieces of truth and leading the way God intends us to lead.

Adam Rushing 12:19

Not because the culture around us deserves it, but God certainly does.

Chris Grainger 12:25

He deserves our best. So, guys, again, this scripture is hard. It's hard scripture to think about. It challenges us directly head on. It makes us question our motives. And quite frankly, for too long, I mean almost four decades of my life, I lived with my head in the sand. I did. And I will tell you this, taking a stance and stepping out now is hard. The world we live, it's hard to do it because the world's gonna push back. Look what happened to Charlie Kerr. I mean, they martyred. And look, I'm not saying that every single one of us is gonna get martyred, but it's gonna we're gonna have to take a firmer stance to push back on this evil narrative that's coming our way. Not because that we're trying to push our own agenda, but because we're staying on the truth of God's word. And if we let God's word guide our decision making and how we show up as men, it's gonna change everything about everything. I mean, the most dangerous thing

Choosing Conviction Over Comfort

Chris Grainger 13:21

on the planet is a man who is convicted by the Holy Spirit and takes steps of obedience no matter what comes his way. That's a dangerous foe, bro. That's a dangerous foe. The enemy is not gonna like that. And we need strong brothers in Christ that are doing that. And those I'm just I'm praying as we go through this week to think about the distractions that are in your life that are causing you to forget God's faithfulness today. And whatever those distractions are, don't beat yourself up over it. This is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, but course correct. I'm telling you, this guestbook you'll have on the next episode is going to challenge us extremely hard. But it's also extremely needed. We need to challenge. Guys, no one likes to take the easy road. We're here to do hard things. We're here to serve the Lord. We're here to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. And look, if you don't even have the Holy Spirit with you, or if you've never surrendered your life to your lordship of Christ, you're listening to the lion for some reason, man. I don't know why. Maybe you're just curious. And I'm so thankful that you're here. But look, this stuff we're talking about matters. But the first thing that really matters is your relationship with Christ. I've been teaching in John lately, at the daily SKO, by the way. And one thing that's talking is super interesting in John 3 and John 4. In John 3, it starts off Jesus is having conversations with Nicodemus, who's basically the top of the top. I mean, he's a Pharisee, he's a member of the Sanhedrin, he's got his stuff together, right? Nicodemus guy has people who work for him. He's got people who works for him who work for them. I mean, this guy, he was doing it, he was doing it very well. But he was thirsty for something that he couldn't find in this world. And then you go to John 4. As soon as you start John 4, you get the the story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. And the contrast there just keeps rocking me on my heels because you got this Nicodemus who is crushing it in life, essentially, from the outside world standpoint. Then you got this lady who is broken. She's been married five times. She's living with her boyfriend right now. That likely tells us that she's just been hooking up, shacking up, breaking up, and five times her husband's just saying, get out, get out. And she's a Samaritan, which also means that they were set, she's separated. She's not a Jew. The Assyrians, when they took over that land, in uh when they took over the

Nicodemus And The Woman At The Well

Chris Grainger 15:46

land, when Assyrians took over that land, they actually brought in their idols and their customs and all that. And that created tension. They pushed out a lot of the Jews. Some of the Jews stayed there, and then they started having, you know, marrying that and having that into the inner inner faith-type marriages, and next thing you know, that was just a corrupt area. So many, many Jews would just avoid that area completely. They would literally go out their way, out their way, so that they would not have to have a conversation with anybody in Samaria. And yet Jesus goes from meeting with the top guy, basically from the Jewish standpoint, to meeting one of the lowest of the low. Now, this lady was in the land of the outcast, and she was an outcast in the land of the outcast. Like she, no one there would even be with her. This is how far she has fallen. Like she's literally going to the well in the middle of the day because she can't stand the shame that she carries going to the well early in the morning with the rest of the ladies.

Adam Rushing 16:44

Because the rest of the ladies, likely when married, had had children, not this girl. Jesus met her in a brokenness.

Chris Grainger 16:55

He offered her living waters and basically offered her eternal life by putting her faith in her trust in him. And she was like, yo, I want that. I want that. And the first thing he did to her was make her address the sin problem in her life. That's what I want to do with you. Like if you're listening and you don't have that relationship with Christ, the first thing you got to do is address the sin in your life. And if the sin is the thing that separate us from God. And there's plenty of those things out there. And when we really get real about that and start thinking what those things are, it could be adultery, it could be pornography, it could just be lust or temptation or pride. There's so many things that pull us away when we're chasing the temporary thrills and thrills of this world. She was literally sitting there at a well, and she could get the water from the well, and she would drink it, and it would be satisfied. But guess what? She gets thirsty again. This is what the world offers us. It offers us water, but it's never satisfying. What Jesus is offering us is water that never will never get thirsty again when we put our trust in him. But it started again with that sin and acknowledging that sin and recognizing that sin and bringing it to Christ. Just laying it out to him. Guess what? He didn't beat her up. There's no combination from Christ. He just wanted her to recognize the need that she has in her life for something greater than her. That is a Savior. Guys, that's what we have with Jesus. That's why the gospels are so important, so that we can see how Jesus operated, what he did for us, how he loves us, and how it's for everyone. Again, Nicodemus, top of the top, Samaritan woman, bottom on the bottom, and guess what? Everywhere in between. And that's what Jesus does for us because he loves us so stinking much. And did Nicodemus deserve it? No. Did the Samaritan woman deserve the grace? No. The grace is a free gift from God. And see, this is where you got to get to this point where you understand that the sin nature in your life, the sin that you have, is a big deal. It's not something that you just want to try to manage and just try to control. No, it's a big deal. You have to bring that to God. Or else it's going to kill you. It's going to destroy you from the inside out. And when you do bring it to Him, you have that living water. Now, the cool part about the living water he's talking about, it's never-ending. It's never ending. It's not like just the pool of dead water is just there, and eventually when that water dries up, or you use it all, it's gone. No, this is a never-ending source. It's a never-ending source of hope that we have. We like to call it the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within us when we surrender our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And this is where you are. Hopefully, if you're listening to the show and you're curious about Christ and maybe you're learning some things, which is great, but at some point you have to recognize who is Jesus to you?

Adam Rushing 19:54

I know who he is to me. He's my Lord and Savior.

Chris Grainger 19:58

But who is he to you? C.S. Lewis says he's either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. And that's pretty good ways to think about it.

The Gospel And Living Water

Chris Grainger 20:06

Either Jesus is lying completely, or he's completely fallen off his rocker, or he is who he says he is. And there's enough proof and enough evidence out there that we can trust in Jesus and who he was. That's why when he went to the cross, he willingly did that. He paid a penalty for our sins and he died. He died. I mean, he did this on this mission for us, knowing where it was going to lead him, lead him to the cross. It was going to lead him to Calvary. He left heaven and his final destination and his GPS was Calvary. That's crazy. It's mind-blowing. And yet he didn't stay there. They laid him in the tomb, and three days later he rose. And this is why we have so much hope as a as Christians. And this is like the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus. This is what Jesus was appointed him to. The hope that we have, and we put our trust and our faith in him as Lord and Savior of our life. And that's my simple message to you. Admit that you're a sinner. Just rest, deal with the sin. Bring the sin to the light. Believe that Jesus is who he says he is. And then confess to him as Lord. And then at that point, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is going to come and it's going to take over. And then you'll have the new life. The blinders are off. You'll be walking with the Spirit. That's my prayer. So if you've never done that, and for some reason, just the way I just walk through the gospel, which I didn't walk through it the way I typically do, but for some reason, the way I just walk through it right now, just with that Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman type of uh analogies, if that helps you, praise the Lord. God gets all the glory in all this. I'm just delivering the message. It's up to you on how you receive it. I'm willing to pray with you right now to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And look, you can do this listening to a podcast. No one says you've got to be sitting there on a church pew to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So

Admit Believe Confess

Chris Grainger 21:56

if that's you, and that's where you are, and you're ready to go ahead and just confess him as Lord your life. Let's just pray together and do it right now. So, Father, I don't know who that listener is that is hearing the message right now, hearing the gospel clearly for the first time. Lord, I know there's probably been many, many seeds planted before this one, but for some reason, this is the seed that is taking root that they're trusting in. And Lord, they're many that they're a sinner. They know that you are who you say you are, and they believe that in their heart of hearts, and they're confessing you as Lord and Savior of their life. So we're so thankful for this ultimate decision that they're making. We know that the blinders are falling off right now, but the new heart has been replaced at this very moment with the dwelling power of the Holy Spirit. And I just pray God for hand's protection around them because right now the enemy is very frustrated. He's frustrated with the lion, which he stays frustrated with the lion, but now he's very frustrated with this person who is taking the most important step they'll ever take in their life, and that's confessing you as Lord. So we love you, God. We praise you so much, and I just pray for this new believer in Jesus' name. Amen. So look, if you just accepted Jesus, I want to hear from you, okay? Got some resources I'd like to send you. I want to celebrate with you first and foremost. So feel free. Email me, Chris, C H R I S at the LionWithin.us. If you don't mind, let me know what podcast you're listening. To I just just that's more of a curiosity thing. But then just tell me that you could you just confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And I would love to celebrate with you, have some resources. I just want to send you away. And this help you also get plugged into a good gospel-centered church, one that preaches the Bible and nothing else. Just stands on the Word of God, okay? So we want to help you with that. So I'd love to hear from you. I absolutely would love to hear from you. Guys, you don't want to miss this next episode. I'm telling you, you don't want to miss any of them be lying, but this next one's going to be impactful. It's going to rock you on your heels. It's going to really challenge your thinking. And uh it's needed. It's a conversation that's needed. So hopefully you'll be encouraged by it. You guys don't mind, give us a rating and review. That helps big time. Start listening. If you don't mind, if you listen to us on Spotify, please comment, engage with us on Spotify. We're trying to grow that platform. And Spotify

A Prayer To Surrender To Jesus

Chris Grainger 24:02

has a great job now where we can upload the videos. We're trying to do that on a consistent basis, putting all that on Spotify. If you watch us on YouTube, yeah, hey, do the comments there. We'd love, we'd love to hear your comments and engage with you there. And if you listen to Apple or any any of the other platforms, just give us a rating review. That stuff really helps the algorithm so that when people finish listening to maybe other podcasts, you know, when it pops up and says, hey, you may also like this, we'd love for the line to be in that queue. And the quickest way we get the line in that queue is for you as a listener to be active and be loud about what the line is doing for you and how we're serving. Okay. So if you find any value, we would definitely ask you to do that. The lionwithin.us, guys, check their website out. We've made a lot of changes on our website. We'd love for you to see what it's all about. We have the free daily SKO. We have our line stand. We have our leadership mastermind. We have the Bible app, guys. Open up the Bible app, search for the Lion Within. Let's go to one of our many, many plans on the Bible app. That's just a great way that we do to serve you. It's all free right there on the Bible app. And that could be great ways to get started with a men's group. Maybe your small group wants to just go through one of our plans. Just go through that plan together. We would love to hear how that goes for you. Okay. Lots of big new announcements are going to be coming soon. Check out the events tab as well, fellas, because the events, we're doing more and more events. I'm getting more and more opportunities to speak and share God's word with people. And look, if you want to, if you have a men's group and you think there's an opportunity that we that the lion could come in and serve your group in any way, in any capacity. Maybe it's a workshop or just a or or a talk for your men's group, it would be an honor. I'd love to hear from you. So you got my email. I've already given it out. But Chris at the lionwithn.us, send me an email. We'll get plugged in, and we would love to be able to talk to you about that, see what that looks like, to see how how we can serve you the best and uh see if we can get locked in. So anyway, send us that note there. If you want to support the show, hey, the lionwithn.us slash donate. We would love to have your support there. You could be a monthly donor or a regular donor or just a one-time donor, whatever works for you. But we need your support to keep doing this work to help God to help us, to help

Email Us And Engage With The Show

Chris Grainger 26:07

us rather do what God's called us to do, and that's help you be the leader that He intends you to be. Because we firmly believe that when Christian men lead the way the Bible tells us, and everything improves. Everything improves. And we need your support. We need your help. All right, guys. So look, we'll see you next time. I cannot wait for you to see this next episode. Thanks for hanging out with me this morning, or whenever you're listening to this podcast. Have a great day. And you know what's coming, right? Just keep unleashing the lion within. It's time to stop battling pornography, lust, and temptation alone. We're done sitting on the sidelines, seeing shame win, and hearing from guys that are fighting private wars with no backup. So we decided it's time to fight back. We have our sexual integrity support group, which is a confidential space inside the lion's den for men who are ready to step into the light and pursue real freedom. This isn't just for guys in crisis, by the way. It's for any man who's tired of the cycle, who's tired of living in secret, who's tired of saying this is gonna be the last time. Look, most guys don't need another app or some rules. They need some brothers to come alongside them to say you're not the only one. This doesn't define you. And freedom is possible. So look, inside our group, you're gonna find a confidential, judgment-free forum to engage and ask questions. You'll have honest conversations without commendation. And you'll also have a monthly call with a trusted guy. So look, this isn't just about stopping pornography, it's about becoming a man of integrity, a man aligned, a man who lives in freedom, not secrecy. And you don't have to clean yourself up first to come. You just have to step in. So our sexual integrity support group is found inside the Lion's Den. And you can start that today with a 30 day free trial. So if you're ready to stop fighting alone and need that extra support, start your 30 day free trial right now at thelionwithin.us. That's thelionwithin.us,

Sexual Integrity Support Group Invitation

Chris Grainger 28:18

and step inside the lion's den.