Scripture Of The Week And Why

Chris Grainger 1:27

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 kick off. Let's kick it off. All right. So scripture of the week this week is in the book of 1 John. So not John, but 1 John chapter 4. And looking at the first verse, it says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Okay, guys. So that's the verse. We're going to see how we can simplify and apply it to our life as Christian men right here today in 2026. And look, we do the SKO Monday through Friday at the Lion Within Us. So go to the LionWithin.us right now. Sign up for the daily SKO. Guys, it's free. I mean, what are you waiting on? We give it to you and we do this video every Monday through Friday. We have video where we just share God's word and how we apply it to our life. We also have a prayer request space where we have a prayer meeting every Monday. We'd love to invite you to come to that. Let us know how we can be super intentional about praying for you on your behalf and be a prayer warrior for you. And on top of all that, all that, if you're in the continental U.S., we have a free gift. We would love to send you. So you get all access to all this guys, the Lion Within, T-H-E-LionWithin.us. You'll see the link right there just for the daily SKO. Just jump all over it, okay? All right. Let's get into

Finding First John In Your Bible

Chris Grainger 2:58

it. So where is 1 John? We don't want to just assume anything, okay? So when we study God's word, we need to know where where to look. And for some new believers, this is a little bit challenging, okay? First John is in the New Testament. You're going to find it after 2 Peter. So if you go first and 2 Peter, then you get to 1 John. But 1 John, 2nd John, and 3rd John, they all run together. So it can be kind of challenging. It's going to be towards the back of your Bible, though. That's the main thing. Just kind of go towards the back. It's probably easiest to go to the back and then work backwards, okay? All right. So

Discernment In A Distracted Culture

Chris Grainger 3:30

we're going to be talking about this week's going to be a very interesting week. I'm going to be straight up with you guys. We've never had a topic like this on for our Wednesday guest that uh that we're going to be unpacking, but I'm not going to be a spoiler. But this right here, this verse, kind of it really dovetails nicely into that conversation. And we're going to talk about testing spirits. Okay, because we need to understand, as men, we need to have discernment. And we also need to recognize we live in a very distracted time, don't we? I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's everywhere. Distraction is constant, deception is profitable. It's profitable, be deceptive, y'all. I mean, it just is. And everywhere we turn, somebody, somebody, everywhere, they're trying to capture our attention. And then what they're trying to do is shape what you believe. They're trying to sell you what they what they believe to be true, or pull us down some other type of rabbit trail. And headlines, let's just face it, headlines are loud, bro. They are. And theories out there, they're just nonstop. And the internet, if you look how the algorithms work, it's very interesting. They really reward speculation. It just does. People love this stuff: controversy and conspiracy theories and all this stuff. And many people are, at the end of the day, they're just trying to pull wool over our eyes. And for a Christian, as a Christian man, this matters. It matters. Because we're not just dealing with bad information. Scripture tells us that we live in a world where spiritual deception is real. Okay, it is. The Bible doesn't present a reality that's just physical. No. The Bible tells us directly that there is a visible world and what? An invisible world. You have earthly powers, yep. And you have spiritual powers. You got human lives and you have demonic doctrines. Because Paul tells us right here in Ephesians 6.12 as well, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against what? The spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. So, fellas, that doesn't mean every strange event that happens or every mystery or anything that's unexplained phenomenon is automatically demonic. We have to be cautious about this. Okay, because we don't want to overstate what we know. Because some things are just natural. They just do. I mean, some things are happening, some things are man-made, uh, some things are just quite frankly misunderstood or exaggerated, or maybe they're just unknown to us. But scripture, if we want to use the lens of scripture to help us, scripture is clear right here that deception, deception, that's real. Okay? And not all deception is merely intellectual. Because there is a spiritual dimension to this falsehood that we have to understand. And that's why John's words right here in the gospel and 1 John are so important. It says, do not believe every spirit. So that command should do what for us? It should probably cause us to pump the brakes. Because John assumes that not every claim deserves us to trust it. Okay, that's a pretty good assumption. Right? Not every teacher deserves your ear, boys. I'm telling you, not every teacher does. And because and not every supernatural claim is from God. It's just not. So the Christian, for us as men, we're not commanded to be naive. We're commanded to be discerning. And there's a problem with chasing all these rabbit trails. Because you have these topics out there now that are just very pervasive. You have topics like UFOs and aliens and knowledge and hidden civilizations and government cover cover-ups and this unexplained phenomena that's out there. And it can capture our imaginations. And we and it can also trip us up. And it trips us up because these unexplained things quite often create a vacuum. Okay. And this is where people are rushing it into it because they want to try to find it with meaning. Because it starts reshaping their theology around what God has not clearly shown us, but it's it starts really changing the way they think about it. And it's not the danger is not in asking questions, okay? Christians should ask questions. The danger is letting the speculation become more authoritative in our minds than God's word. That's it. When we start giving more, here's straight up. When you start giving more emotional weight to a podcast or a documentary or some short that you saw, like then when you start giving that more weight, then you give the word of God. You've totally stepped out of the realm of discernment at that point because you're being discipled by a mystery. And that's a terrible master to serve. So John tells us test the spirits. He doesn't say ignore them. No, he doesn't say panic over them or believe every every supernatural claim. He says test

Four Tests For Spiritual Claims

Chris Grainger 8:45

them. So we need to think about this. How do we do that? Look, first of all, let's test what Christ said. Because John gives us the first test immediately. He's like, test you'll by this you'll know the Spirit of God, that every spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God. So the first question is not, is this interesting? Or is it convincing? The first question is, what does this do with Jesus? Okay, what does it do with Jesus? Does this claim lead me to worship Christ as Lord? Does it affirm the truth of the incarnation? Does it submit Jesus to Jesus rather as the Son of God? So any spirit or or teaching or system or theory that diminishes Christ, that's not from God. And this matters because deception often doesn't really begin by openly denying Jesus, but it will, it does have a way of distracting us from him, doesn't it? Right? It shifts the center, it makes something else feel larger. And that should cause us to pump the brakes. And then it tells us to test it against the scripture. That's the second way to do it. Because the Bible is our final authority, it's not speculative. Isaiah tells us to the teaching and to the testimony, if they will not speak according to this word, it's because they have no dawn. It says that directly. And it's interesting in Acts that the Bereans, they were called noble because they examined Paul's teaching by the scriptures daily to see whether it was true. So even if uh the the preaching was examined by scripture, how much more should like these theories that we read on the internet uh be tested? I mean, really? We're talking about uh comparing preaching versus what's was found on a viral YouTube clip? Yeah, I think we need to do a little bit more testing. We've got to start asking better questions. They've got to ask, does this contradict what God has revealed? Does this lead you towards obedience or takes you down the path of being obsessed with something from this world or not from this world, right? Does this produce a fear inside of you? Does this make the scripture clearer or less necessary? So see how all this works. So God has not told us everything there is to know. We need to recognize that to be true. But he has told us everything we need to know for life, for godliness, for salvation, for discernment. And then it also talks about testing the fruit. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew, you will recognize him by the fruits, right? So a belief is not harmless simply because it's interesting. Okay, ideas bear fruit. So does this belief produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, general, self-control, all the fruit of spirits, right? That's in the right out of Galatians. Or does this belief produce fear or pride or arrogance or an obsession or suspicion? You see how you see how that works? Because some rabbit trails do not make men stronger than the Lord, they make them anxious or combative or suspicious or distracted. And that's bad fruit. And as a Christian man, we need to be honest enough to ask, hey, is this making me more like Christ? Or is it just feeding my need to feel like I know something that someone else doesn't know? I'm telling you what, but you start asking that question, it really hits you. And then you have to test whether it leads to fear or sober-mindedness. Because scripture repeatedly calls to believers to be what? Sober-minded. And to tell 1 Peter tells us, be sober-minded, be watchful. So biblical discernment is not panic or paranoia, it's clear-eyed faithfulness. And there's a difference, fellas, between being awake and being consumed. Right? And there's a difference, a big difference between being watchful and being fearful. And God does not give us a spirit of fear. He tells us that right here in 2 Timothy. So if a claim is consistently driving us into fear or instability or obsession, you should slow down and test it carefully. And we have to see as this testing, and this and through the process of this testing, rather, is it distracting us from our calling?

Distraction As The Enemy’s Strategy

Chris Grainger 13:06

Because one of the enemy's greatest strategies, and quite frankly, one of the oldest strategies, is distraction. Because if he can't get you to outright deny Christ, what's he gonna do? He just wants to keep you busy, Bo. That's it. I just want to keep you busy because if a busy Christian is not an effective Christian, right? Well, he's definitely busy on the things of this world, to be to be clear there. Because a man can we can spend hours studying theories. And at the same time, while we're studying those theories, what are we neglecting? Sometimes we just neglect prayer. Or you debate, you get into these debates on these mysteries, and while you're doing these debates, who's leading your family? Or I just see you see how this works. And if we go down these rabbit trails too far, we miss what God has really called us to. And that's not discernment and that distraction. And that's distraction is wearing a spiritual mask. And God has called us to something more. So you know, you're gonna see more and more as as we unpack in and in the Christian worldview as well, on the topic of like UFOs and aliens. And we're gonna talk straight up, we're gonna talk about that some on our podcast on Wednesday, but look, it's not a time to panic. Particularly in the things that are unexplained phenomena. Because here's the reality: if something is natural, God made the natural world. If it's technical, if it's a technological type of advancement, right? Man remains accountable to God. So we know that. If it's psychological, guess who understands the mind? God. If it's deceptive, well, God is the God of truth, so we know that's not from Him. If it's demonic, we have to remember that Christ is Lord. Still, He's on the throne. So a Christian worldview, our Christian worldview is not threatened by any mystery. But we have to be careful. We have to be careful. Because Scripture does not give us permission to build doctrine on speculation. We should not quick be quick to baptize every unexpected and to to claim rather every unexpected, unexplained event as demonic. Nor should we accept them at face value. So when we start thinking about it, the right posture is not being gullible or fearful. The right posture is being biblically discerning. And at the end of the day, whatever we encounter in this world belongs to one of two categories. It's either part or part of the created earthly order or the spiritual realm. Either way, it's not ultimate. God is ultimate. That means we don't need to be shaken by the unexplained. We test everything under the authority of the one who explains reality himself. So at the end of the day, slow down. Just slow down and be skeptical, but in the right way. Because there is a type of skepticism that is sinful, because it refuses to believe God. But there's also a type of skepticism that's wise because it refuses to believe things too quickly. And John is calling us to be that second kind. Okay? He's really calling us. Do not believe every spirit. That means ask your questions. Open your Bible. Pray for wisdom. Look for evidence of the fruit. Consider the source that you're getting information from. Examine it to see what it says about Christ. And ask whether this is helping you obey God or me, or simply just maybe feeding your curiosity. And we, as guys, we've got to have this type of discipline. We just do. Because we're called to be watchful, not impulsive. We have to be steady and courageous and curious, yes, but submitted to truth. And this world is going to keep throwing these mysteries at us, fellas. It's just going to happen. The more and more, the longer it goes, we're going to get more and more of this stuff. And the internet's never going to be empty of theories. There's going to be plenty of theories out there. There's going to be plenty of false teachers out there. There's going to be lots of spiritual deception out there. But God has not left us helpless. We got his word. He's given us his spirit. We have the church. And he's given us

A Christian Worldview Against Mystery

Chris Grainger 17:34

the command to test. So do that testing. Not because you're afraid of the world, but because you belong to Christ. And Christ is the truth. So, fellas, I mean that's it. And look, at the end of the day, though, the testing and submitting to the Spirit only works when you yourself have submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and He is Lord over your life.

Surrendering To Jesus For Discernment

Chris Grainger 17:57

So you're listening to the Lion, and we love unpacking God's word, and we love bringing these incredible guests on and trying to just give you an insight from a biblical worldview of what it means to be a Christian man today, to be the leader he intends you to be. And I'm so thankful you're here. But if you yourself don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the testing of the Spirits is outside of your capability. It's outside of your capability because you do not have the Holy Spirit working within you to give you this wisdom and discernment that I've been talking about on this whole entire episode. So you have to have wisdom and discernment, but that only comes from God, and you only get it from God when you confess Him as Lord and Savior. That starts with just having a basic understanding of who you are as a sinner, someone who is who's separated from God. That's all the sin is, anything that separates us from God. That is a sinner. Every single one of us are. Whatever the word is, right? And if I can do enough of these things, then I'll probably, when I get to that point, I'm I'm earning a right standing before God. And I'm like, bro, you completely missed it. You can't earn a right, you can't buy that. The penalty of sin is death. So no, you can't you can't overcome the sin of your life by trying to be some version of good. It just doesn't work that way. No. So it's like, okay, well, if I can't be good and earn my salvation, how in the world do I get it? Well, you get it by submitting to a savior. You need a savior to come in and do for you what you can't do for yourself. That's why we make such a big deal about Jesus. Because this is exactly what he did when he left heaven on the mission for us to come save the entire world. So this is Jesus. He was born of a virgin and performed all the miracles and the signs and fulfilled the prophecies and all that stuff that he did in his earthly ministry was for us. And then he willingly, willingly went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, to die the most gruesome death for the sin of the world. Because he loves us so much. And when Jesus was hanging on that cross, he was thinking about you. He just he was. He was thinking about every single one of us. And I don't know about you, but I will not leave on a mission when I know that the outcome is my demise. But this is what Jesus did. He came and he paid the penalty on that cross. And he died. He didn't faint or go to sleep or anything silly like that. He died on the cross. They laid him in a tomb. But the God we worship, Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, did not stay in that tomb. Three days later, it's like an Airbnb for Jesus, man. That's all he needed was a weekend. He overcame death. He defeated death. And he walked out of that tomb. And he lives. And there's no other name under heaven that's been given among men by which we must be saved. It is Jesus and Jesus alone. And this is where he's at. He ascended to the right to heaven. He's at the right-handed Father right now. No one comes to the Father except through him. This is it. He's the way, the truth, and the life. It's Jesus. So look, maybe you've been doing life your way for quite a while. I get it. We got lots of guys listening to the show. Guys love to have the I got this mentality. We just want to bootstrap it and get things done. I'm with you. I was that way for a long time. I will tell you one thing. You will hit a point, and I don't know when that point is. Maybe you're at that point right now where you don't. You can't do it. You're going to reach your limits. And at that moment, either you're going to uh uh keep pushing and burn out or keep getting more and more frustrated, or you're going to start recognizing, you know what? My way hasn't been really the best way. And I want to invite you in to a relationship with Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Is it going to make things magically instantly improve? No. You're still going to, because we live still live in a fallen world, but it is better. It's 100 times better because you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. And at that point, it's guiding, it's directing, it's showing you the steps to take. So I would invite you, if you haven't accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you're listening to the Lion within us right now, take the step today. Take the step today. Don't put off for tomorrow what God's calling you to do right now. Because quite frankly, you're not promised tomorrow. I'm not trying to scare you, but none of us are. I'm not promised tomorrow. But I'm promised right now, and right now, God is asking me to ask you to confess Him as Lord of your life and surrender. Just give it all to Him, submit to Him, and watch how the peace that passes all understanding just floods your mind, just fills your body because you now be walking with the Lord. So if that's you, you want to make that decision to follow Christ right now, let's just pray it up. Let's make it happen. So, Lord, I don't know who this one listener is right now. And they're surrounded. They are surrendering their life to you, Father. They're calling out to you. They're recognizing that they are a sinner in need of a savior, and they recognize that you are that savior. No one else. No one else can do this for them. They're doing this for themselves. They're not being pushed into this. They're not trying to be coerced into this. They're making this personal decision to follow you. And I'm so thankful that they're doing this, Lord. We welcome them into the kingdom. I know you welcome them in. And I know one thing. I'm going to pray and hedge protection around them because the evil one is very frustrated right now that they are making this decision. So I'm just praying for their protection. I'm praying that for wisdom, for guidance, and discernment. And I'm so thankful for this ultimate decision they're making as confessing you as Lord and Savior of their life. We love you, God. We praise you so much in Jesus' name. Amen.

Prayer And Next Steps After Salvation

Chris Grainger 24:10

So look, if you just confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, look, I'd love to hear from you. We have a bunch of resources at the Lion. We would just love to send you a couple of scriptures to just help kind of get you down a track of memorization because memorizing God's word is a big deal. It really is a big deal. And look, wherever you're located, we have guys all over the country. We'd love to at least give you some input or some guidance on how to what to look for, rather, in a church. Okay. Not all churches are created equal by far. Trust me, I know this firsthand way too well. Lots of lots of uh wolves and sheep's clothing out there. Okay. So you got to be careful. We want to help you discern that. So if you like, if you'd like help from that, look, send us an email, support at the lionwithin.us. You can email Chris at thelionwithin.us. Either one of those gets to me. Happy to look at that and reach back out. Also just want to give you a virtual high five and just give you a little encouragement because this is a major step in your life. I'm so happy that you took it. Okay. So the question of the week this week is do you tend to test the truth or chase distractions? Think about that one. Okay, because we're if we're testing, that's good. It's good to test. Be careful about the chasing those distractions. Okay, because that can that can throw us off. So anyway, fellas, thanks for listening. Look, this next episode would be straight up. It it's it's baller. You're going to want to listen to it on Wednesday when this thing comes out. So make sure you don't miss that. Thelionwithin.us is where you find all our resources at, guys. So if you go to thelionwithin.us, sign up for the daily spiritual kickoff. Hey, just hop if you want to. The easiest thing, just hop on the weekly roar. We have guys who sign up for that thing every day.

Question Of The Week And Resources

Chris Grainger 25:48

Thousands upon thousands of guys now are on that email list. And the weekly roar comes out every Monday. So when the Spiritual Kickoff episode comes out that same day, a weekly roar email comes out. And look, this is not, we're not trying to push something. We're not trying to get you to do anything. We just want to encourage you with that weekly roar. So that's in your inbox. It's not a bunch of fluff. It's just direct talk that my guys, quite frankly, seem to get a lot of value out of. So I'd love to get you on that. And also you have our Lion's Den. So you can go to alignwithin.us. You can see join the Lion's Den. So that's a great way to plug in with us. Or maybe you want to put it, you're considering a leadership mastermind, put it in application. I'm not going to guarantee you that you're going to be accepted, but we will definitely entertain it. We'll see if it's a good fit. If there's an opportunity, we would love to walk with you and show you what that path looks like. Okay. So that's the that's the first step for a mastermind is doing the assessment. Maybe you want to open up the Bible app. So open up the Bible app. Inside the Bible app, search for the LionWithin. Just search not for the Lion Within.us, just search for the Lion Within Us in the Bible app. You'll see all our plans. Tons and tons and tons of plans out there, fellas. Our I'm Just a Guy series. Guys love that series, so you may enjoy it as well. So just go check all that stuff out, guys. It's all again, just open up the Bible app, you'll find it right there. If you like what we're doing and you want support in the Lion Within Us, you can go to thelion within dot us slash donate. Okay, so slash donate. Again, we're a 501c3 fellows, nonprofit. We would love to have your support and helping us do this ministry that we feel and the feedback we're getting from others is also they feel it's helping so many men in their discipleship journey. Right. We're just doing our part. Do we have all the answers? No. But we I know one thing. I'm seeing changed lives. I'm seeing how the men that are coming into the lion, who are who are engaging and having conversation and really leaning in to grow, how it's impacting their life. I don't take any credit for it. God gets all the credit and glory. We're just we're trying to build something that focuses 100% on him and helps you be the leader that he intends you to be. So if that sounds interesting, go check out any of those resources at the Lion Within Us, okay? All right, guys. We'll see you next time on the next episode. Give us a rating and review if you don't mind. That really does help wherever you're listening. And if you're listening on Spotify now, you can comment. So comment on that. YouTube, comment on that as well. Uh, other than that, fellas, thanks so much for hanging out today. Have a great day. Get after it, and just keep unleashing the Lion Within Let's just say it out loud.

Marriage Support Group For Husbands

Chris Grainger 28:30

Marriage is one of the greatest gifts that God can give a man. And one of the most consistent places where we can feel unsure of what we're doing. Even the strongest marriages have moments where you look at your wife and you think, you know what? I love you. I'm so committed to you. But right now I have no idea what I should do next. And that's why we launched something new inside the line within our community. It's our very first support group. And it's for husbands. And we're calling it committed and occasionally confused. This isn't just a place for men in crisis. So if you're there, hey, you're welcome. This is for any man who refuses to coast and wants to take his marriage from good to great. So inside you'll find an active chat and a feed and honest conversation and brotherhood that says, hey, you're not alone. We've been there. Let's bring this to God and grow. And we're also doing a monthly couples night where your wife is invited because we're not letting the world set the agenda for our homes. Now, if you want access to this support group, it's very simple. Go to the lionwithanity.us and join the Lions Dan. Okay, that's the LionWithEntby.us. Start your 30-day free trial of the Lions Dan community, and boom, you have instant access to the committed and occasionally confused support group. We'll see you inside the day.