00:00 Chris Grainger
Welcome to the lion within us, a podcast, serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders they’re predestined to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys, for our big beat episode this week, we’re gonna be talking about vice of sloth and we need to get that out of our lives guys.

And for if, for those who don’t know what sloth is, that’s it’s, it’s not just laziness. It’s where you don’t have a purpose. Your purpose is not aligned with God. And so it’s bigger than laziness guys. And we struggle with this many men struggle with this. Are you mention Netflixs? Are you waiting to go sit down and sit on the couch?

Are there always looking for opportunities to maybe play a video game, to do anything, to check out, right, check out and just, I just need, I just need some me time tell you what guys, this is gonna be a conversation for you. We’re gonna be digging deep, but you know what? Before we get going too far, you know how we start every line within us.

We’re gonna look at God’s word, cause this is gonna drive us today. Proverb 24, 30 through 34. And that again, if you missed a spiritual kick. Go back one episode, check that out. I really dug deep into that con into the, the scriptures here, but what is this telling us? I went past the field of a Slugger past a vineyard of someone who has no sense.

Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the Stonewall was in ruins. I applied my heart for what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on. You like a thief and scarcity like an arm, man.

So, so guys go back again, check that, that spiritual kickoff out, really dug deep into, into that. And I don’t want that for you. I don’t want poverty. I don’t want scarcity. So we, so today, well who we have, we have pastor Ryan Bri. Okay. Church of 1122 guys. You probably remember my conversation with pastor Jovie Martin.

We talked about if the tomb is empty, one of our most popular episodes ever on the line within us. Well, we were able to connect with Jovi’s right hand, man, pastor Ryan Brit. He is the executive ministry’s pastor at the church of 1122. And they’re located in Jacksonville, Florida. Wonderful part of the country.

We’re actually planning a trip down there, cuz we just gotta see what they got going on. He’s married to, to his wife, Jennifer, they have two daughters, Anna, Catherine and Abigail. And since the launching of the church of, of 1122 and 2012, it has grown to eight campuses guys, eight campuses. So prior to his time there 1122 pastor Ryan service, director of global global missions at 12 stone church in Lawrenceville, Georgia, he’s very involved in global church planning efforts.

You know, having served lead missions in numerous countries throughout the world. So he and his family, they love Florida. Okay. They loved the summers. Hanging out by the pool, going to Disney world, all the things that Florida offers, okay. He’s an avid reader movie watcher, and he loves to hit that little white ball, every chance he gets.

So we don’t have that in common, not a big golfer, but I tell you what I’m so excited for, for pastor Ryan, for what he’s gonna share with us for the wisdom. So guys, sit back, get ready. We’re gonna be digging deep into this. Okay. Understanding the, the vice a sloth. We need to get that out of our lives. So I’m not gonna hold it back any longer, guys.

Let’s get into it.

Pastor Ryan Brit, welcome to the line within us. How you doing today, sir?

03:24 Ryan Britt
All good. My man, how you doing?

03:26 Chris Grainger
I’m doing well. I’m doing well. I’ve been excited about this one. You know, church of 1122. We worked with pastor Jovie a few months ago. Just to have an opportunity to connect with you. I’ve listened to some of your sermons now, too.

I was telling thought telling my wife, I think I listened to the average of three to five, uh, church of 1122 sermons a week. I’m already back in 2020 now binging. So you guys are doing some great

03:46 Ryan Britt
stuff, man. Thank you. I don’t, I don’t know if, uh, sermon listening is a, uh, competition, but if it is, seems like you’re winning, so I may be winning.

I may be winning. Yeah.

03:55 Chris Grainger
that’s right. And your, one of your assistants, they actually sent me a, uh, a decal two man. So on the back of our car, we had the church 1122. So I got what I think it just says 1122. So I’m getting questions on that. So, man, it’s, it’s, it’s opening up opportunities just to share about you guys here in North Carolina.

04:11 Ryan Britt
Yeah, man. Well, happy to do it. Thanks for, uh, reaching out and thanks for letting us be a part of what God’s doing through, uh, your podcast as well. So happy to contribute. Absolutely. Well,

04:20 Chris Grainger
well, so looking forward to having you on today, you know, and I gave an intro pastor Ryan, but that’s just me talking, man.

I love to let our listeners and our guys, they, they want to know who they’re hearing from. So would you mind just giving a little bit about your story and your journey?

04:33 Ryan Britt
Yeah, for sure. Uh, my name’s Ryan Brit, I’m the, uh, executive pastor at the church of 1122 in Jacksonville, Florida. I don’t exactly know what executive pastor does, but, um, I’m doing it to the best of my ability and, uh, um, been serving here at 1122, since 2014.

Um, before that I served at, uh, a few different churches, uh, most recently a church called 12 stone church in, uh, the north part of Atlanta, Georgia, which is also where I grew up. Um, I’m, I’m married, uh, of 15 going on 16 years to my wonderful wife, Jennifer, we have two little girls named Anna Catherine she’s 11 and Abigail is eight.

And, um, And so Jacksonville has become home to us. I grew up in a pastor’s home. My father was a pastor. Uh, my brother is a senior pastor of a great little church outside of Athens, Georgia called Bethlehem church. Uh, multisite church, doing great work, reaching people, making a difference. And, and, um, and so I’ve been doing this my whole life, my brother and I joke, uh, that say we were genetically engineered to do what we do, you know, that they were, uh, injecting me with Greek and Hebrew when I was in my mother’s, uh, womb.

And so, uh, I, the church is my, uh, I love Jesus first and his wife second, the church, you know, I love the church. I love the local church. I love, um, serving. Um, I’ve been, I’ve been at it since I was 15 years old was my first internship in local churches. And so I just love the beautiful mess that God is, is growing and perfecting.

And, um, Through Jesus and, and in the local church. And so I love our local church, 1122 is, uh, the, if I could just do church anyway, that I wanted to, if it was up to me, 1122, is it man, God’s breathed on it. Lives are being changed. People are being healed. Marriages are being restored. Um, it’s really, really, really, uh, a powerful, humbling thing to be a part of.

So I’m thankful, man. My life is blessed and it has been blessed for a long time. So I’m thankful. Yeah, that is

06:45 Chris Grainger
awesome. So now you said you’re from Georgia, so I’m assuming you’re a Braves fan.

06:49 Ryan Britt
I am last year was our year buddy. We won the, the Braves won the world series and the bulldogs won the Natty the national championship.

So GoDog go Braves.

06:59 Chris Grainger
Yeah. Well now that was my second question too. So since, so I’m just making sure. So there’s no conflict between you and pastor Jovi. You guys are definitely aligned on the

07:05 Ryan Britt
sports. no, it’s not required to be a Georgia bulldog to be a pastor here, but, uh, it’s highly recommended, highly recommended.

07:12 Chris Grainger
I hear you. That’s right here. So. See up here in North Carolina, our pastures it’s it’s, it’s, it’s a division between North Carolina and NC state. Right. So there’s always the, some division there. You either you’re either Carolina fan or state fans. So I guess there’s either the dogs or the Gators, right?

Yeah,

07:28 Ryan Britt
no, it is that, it is funny actually in Jacksonville. Jacksonville is actually kind of the, like the capital of south Georgia. And so there’s as many bulldog fans here as there are Gator fans or Florida state Seminole fans. And so, wow. Uh, that’s awesome. Feels like home for sure.

07:44 Chris Grainger
well, that’s great. And I, I know 1122, you mentioned the things you guys are doing and I, I can’t remember the stat.

Was it like 610 or something baptisms you guys had on that beach baptism a few weeks ago or maybe it was last month ago? I, I just remember. I, like I said, I listened every week, so that, yeah, that

08:00 Ryan Britt
six. Yeah, we got to baptize 644 people at the beach a few weeks ago and, uh, beach baptisms. We do public.

Profession of faith through baptism a couple of times a year here. And our big event is every summer at the beach. And, uh, uh, man, it’s like a huge tailgate for Jesus, but it’s a really sacred, special thing that, uh, people are going public with spending their life to Jesus. So, yeah, man, that’s, uh, that was certainly one of the coolest things.

And this year a big storm was, was barreling down on us. And so, yeah, uh, we’re baptizing ’em as fast as we can. It was a little, uh, a little chaotic, but man, it was. Because

08:37 Chris Grainger
it looked like the weather was pretty choppy there. Ma so were you out there in the water? Oh yeah. Doing the baptisms

08:42 Ryan Britt
too. Oh, oh yeah, man.

Just taking six foot waves in the face, you know so it was awesome though, man, what else you gonna do? So it was great.

08:50 Chris Grainger
I was telling somebody, I mean, those, those red shirts, I guess everybody was wearing, it looked like you were at a, at a, uh, a dog’s game, you know? yeah. The way you got shirt, I wasn’t was that planned on, you know, come on now.

09:02 Ryan Britt
Yeah. We give everybody getting baptized a shirt and uh, red shirt and it helps us on a lot of fronts. And then there’s thousands of people on the beach cheering for ’em. And so it’s a, it’s a family event and, uh, and there’s just, it just breathes so much life and momentum into, uh, our, our, our local body here.

Um, yeah, but man, there’s nothing like standing in the water baptizing people and you can just hear people saying Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior. Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior. Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior just over and over and over. You’re out there for 90 minutes. Right. You know, with eight or eight or nine lines going.

And so, um, if that sounds cool to you, we do it every summer. Pay attention to our website. We’d love to have you come join us at beach baptism and, uh, cheer on the folks that are going public with their faith.

09:48 Chris Grainger
Absolutely. And guys we’ll make sure as always we’ll sync up everything in the show notes, go check it out.

Church of 1122, make sure that’s on your, your, your podcast fee. Cuz it’s it’s top of mind. There’s even a second one. I think pastor Jovie does to call deepen. So we’ll have that on our, in our, in our, uh, show notes as well. But you know, when we were talking pastor run, you wanted to, you kind of brought up a tie pick.

I said, well, we haven’t talked about that. And, and, and so you said, let’s talk about devices, slot, and, and what that looks like. And you sent me some notes and I’ve already recorded. You know, we released that, uh, episode, the spiritual kickoff talking through Proverbs 24 where it’s talking about the Slugger, but maybe you just get us started, you know, how do you define sloth?

What, when you, when you just look at that word in general, what, what, what do you say there?

10:32 Ryan Britt
Yeah. Sloth is the rejection of purpose is how I would simply define it. Um, the old it Proverbs has many passages dedicated to the heart of the Slugger to the sloth. And, uh, sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, as we would know from the mid media medieval times.

And, and, um, but it’s something we don’t talk about. It’s not a word that you hear, you don’t hear sermons on it very much. Um, and sometimes I think that’s one of the enemy’s greatest tricks is to kind of defang something that eats away at our soul by taking its name away. Oh, and so if you don’t talk about it in popular culture, if you don’t, then if you don’t have an awareness of a thing, then it’s hard to take that thing captive and, and to, to be free from it.

And so sloth is, is the rejection of purpose. Um, and what I mean by that is that. Purpose being created for purpose being given purpose by God, it comes inherently with responsibility and responsibility is what makes purpose purposeful, you know? Right. And, and so to have responsibility is to the flesh man.

Um, it feels sometimes responsibility feels like a burden mm-hmm and it feels like a weight we carry. Right. And instead of embracing the responsibility that comes with purpose, we resist it and we reject it. And that desire to resist and reject purpose and pursue, um, pleasure or to pursue a self-defined version of freedom.

Mm-hmm um, that resistance or rejection that is sloth the spirit of the Slugger at work within us. And so at its its simplicity, it’s the rejection of purpose, but nobody would say. They wake up every day and actively habitually reject or resist purpose, everybody would actually say they’re on the pursuit of purpose.

Right. Um, and so I would get into the definition of terms a little bit, but, um, so much of our time is spent trying to create for ourselves a, a version of freedom, which is that I wanna do what I wanna do the way I wanna do it when I want to do it. And anything that rubs up against that introduces limitations, anything that introduces restraint or order, right.

We kind of resist against that because we feel like there’s something in the world telling us what to do when the tr when we just wanna do whatever we wanna do. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And so that, that tension, um, is really not a tension. It’s more of a, a problem to solve, but that. The spirit of resistance and rejection to order and to limitations and to restraints as given by God for purpose to be fulfilled, that resistance to that is the spirit of sloth at work.

For sure. Right.

13:39 Chris Grainger
And I guess for men in particular, I mean, we want to be autonomous. You kind of, you alluded to that. I mean, the autonomy, that’s what we all strive for. We live in America, the land, the free home, right. We, we should be able to do whatever we want to do. It should be our rules. We should be, you know, we’re the ones in charge and you know, that’s, that’s not the case we have to, to, to lay that down and understand there’s a bigger purpose at hand.

14:02 Ryan Britt
No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And when we one, when, when we’re created, we’re created with a purpose and then when Wes our life to Jesus, we’re that purpose is given very specific direction and very specific, um, Order of fulfillment. And then you, you add things in there, like marriage and parenting and all these really beautiful purpose filled relationships that God gives us.

Right. Um, but so much time, we spend so much time in these relationships with our job and with our families frustrated mm-hmm , uh, but we don’t know what we’re frustrated about. Right. And so right underneath the surface, it’s like if 10 is lashing out in frustration and saying things you regret, and, um, there’s a big, there’s a, there’s a coldness that’s growing in your relationships, a numbness.

Um, if, if that’s 10 where you’re acting on that frustration, most of us below the surface are humming on like an eight all the top. Mm-hmm , there’s just this angst and this frustration with our lives and the, and the things that we have. And I would argue that a large part of that frustration is, um, the heart of the Slugger.

And it’s, it is a resistance to the purpose that has been given to you in and through those relationships, the opportunity to bless, because you’ve been blessed the chance to give yourself away, not to give yourself away in order to get, but to give yourself away because giving yourself away is good.

Mm-hmm and it grows good. You see what I’m saying? Yeah. And, um, and so we just spend so much time frustrated because people, things, marriage, kids, um, work, the, the, it stands in our way of what we think we want, which is to be free to do whatever we want right now. We don’t use those words. It takes a little bit of thinking to get there, but, um, but that’s, it it’s that like this, just that general, like, uh, again, You know, and it’s just humming, it’s just humming underneath the surface that discontent, that frustration, um, and Proverbs, you read 24, 26 Proverbs 26 talks about the Slugger.

And, um, the Slugger is the, is a master of distraction. Right. And so, and, and so nobody, no man that I’ve ever met would set would just throw their hand up and say, I’m, I’m, I’m lazy, especially in today’s pop in today’s culture and the way that our world works. Right. Um, most everybody’s very busy, but I would argue that you can be busy and lazy at the same time.

Yeah. And you’re just, you fill your time up with distractions and that’s the, the Slugger does that in proverb 26, the Slugger says, he says, there’s a lion in the streets. There’s a lion over here. And he’s trying to get everybody to pay attention to this lion that’s out in the streets. Right, right. While he is withdrawing into himself in, in order to satisfy himself with ultimately nothingness.

And he’s saying, look over here. Right. And that’s the ki I mean, think about popular culture. It’s look over here and look over here and look at, look at this thing, you know, distraction, distraction, distraction. And so our minds are very, very busy, but they’re also very, very distracted. Yeah. And, and that, what that produces in us is a purposeless meaningless day after day, just going through the motions of, uh, whatever the next distraction is that seemingly qualifies as most important.

That’s the thing we’ll, we’ll give ourself to and hope it produces some kind of joy or happy. You know what I mean? Yeah,

18:02 Chris Grainger
absolutely. I wanna dig into that to a little bit. Well, let’s take a quick break pass around then I’ll jump back in. Cuz I asked some questions to follow up on, on that pursuit of joy.

Be right back guys.

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There’s a big difference in what we know to be true as men. And then what do we actually do at that time, right? How are we actually spending that time to your, your point where, where we wanna be autonomous? We, we know some things that we should be focusing on to get away from that Slugger type behavior, but that’s, doesn’t end up being in our, in our actual behavior.

So, I mean, there’s a gap there that I guess you’re seeing, and you’re definitely, I have it in my life. And it just, what are your thoughts on that?

19:32 Ryan Britt
Yeah, I think that a way to think about what the, the heart of the, the sloth creates in our life is that it, it creates a desire to, for consumption. Without, without contentment.

And so we want to consume, but we’re never content. So we gonna consume more experiences. We want to consume more media. We want to consume more, uh, Netflix shows or whatever it is we wanna consume, but yet we’re never, we’re never content. And so on average, we look at social media, 17, an American adult looks at social media, 17 to 20 times a day.

And that is 90 to 120 minutes. Uh, on average a day spent on social media. That’s a lot of time. Yeah. That’s a lot of time. Um, Netflix, the CEO of Netflix one time came out and said that the goal of Netflix, so his desire is to cure boredom. And so when you think about what boredom is, which our, with our, our obsession, with not being bored, All the streaming platforms and just all the media that’s coming at us all the time, um, that creates that distracted mind or fuels the distracted mind.

Look on, on the surface level. Boredom is explanation for, for far deeper feelings of despair, hopelessness, meaninglessness, purposelessness, and even certain types of, of depression. Boredom is a manifested behavior of some of these things that are going on down in our guts and, and boredom is the result of, uh, it’s not that I don’t have anything to do.

It’s the re it’s the result of, I don’t know what to do with myself. Mm. So I’ll say that again, boredom is not the result of not having anything to do, cuz there’s plenty of things that we can find to do. It’s that I don’t know what to do with myself. Right. And so what, what do you do. Well, one you have to dig into what is, what is it, what is purpose and what does it mean to give yourself away?

And what is your goal in work? More importantly, what is God’s goal for me as someone who works mm-hmm right. And if you look at the, the biblical mandate of cultivating and having dominion, which is what we call work right. Somewhere in the west and our Western mindset work became, I show up around eight, I get done around four or five, and then I’m off that.

It’s your time. That’s right. It’s me time. That’s right. But that is not the nature of the, the biblical mandate to cultivate and to create, um, it’s, it’s, it’s not at all the, the family rearing marriage, home keeping responsibilities of stewardship. That all qualifies under the category of work, um, and, and working the land and having dominion, right?

This is all the resources and relationships God’s trusted you in. They’re supposed to be in a certain rhythm and that rhythm is plant grow harvest. Yep. Plant grow harvest. So when you go to work, you’re either in a season of planting in a season of growing or in a season of harvesting. And Paul comes along later and he says, Hey, look, and specifically talking about Evangel, the work of evangelism and advancing God’s kingdom.

Um, he says that some, some plant seeds, some water, but it’s God who makes it grow. And so we don’t necessarily know when the harvest is coming, but we know that if we give ourselves to work and we give ourselves to creating and we give ourselves to cultivating in planting. Seeds, however long that season may last that there will be a growth season and there will be a harvesting season.

Isn’t that what we all want with our kids? Yeah. Supplant seeds of love and joy and the word of God and hope in a positive, um, uh, a positive gospel centered self- image. And self-worth according to, we wanna plant all these things in our kids when they’re young. Right. Mm-hmm but they don’t, it doesn’t just happen.

You actually have to do something, right. You have to put them in gospel centered environments. You have to open God’s word with them. You have to, um, put those things in your heart so that they come out and land on fertile soil with your children. Does that make, you know what I mean? It’s not, it’s a plant planting and then over time and at the right time it grows.

Look, man, I’m 42 years old this weekend. Um, my dad was a great guy. There are things at 42 now that are just starting to like grow above the surface that my dad planted in me when I was like 10. Yeah. Right. You know, and so, absolutely. Um, so that’s, I would say in, in your relationships, where are you intentionally planting?

Uh, where is God growing and what is the harvest you’re praying for? Um, and I’m not trying to use like all pastor E language here. This is just the way the Bible prescribes the nature of work plant grow harvest, you know?

25:01 Chris Grainger
Absolutely. But I mean, I think at the core of it, you mentioned a couple of times you had to be intentional with this pastor Ryan.

And one thing that, that social media statue you read scared me. And I think as, as you think through it, you know, the, the, the vice of S sloth was holding so many men back there and their, you know, quite frankly, just not being intentional with their families is because that, that social media, that experience that, that, that, that need to check out and, and go somewhere.

Has taken the place. If you look back a couple generations go, we didn’t have that. You know, dads had more time to be intentional. Like your dad, like, think about when you were 10 years old or, or I think you said your kids eight and 11, somewhere in that range, your dad didn’t have these distractions that dads these days have.

And he was probably, you know, definitely able to, to plant a lot of seeds. Like you said, year 4 41, you got that things that are just sprout now from when he planted them then. So is, I think it’s a bigger impact than we recognize, you know, this social media, the whole, the whole idea of people checking out and doing on their own.

That, that previous generations, they just didn’t have that battle.

26:06 Ryan Britt
Yeah. I, I agree. I mean, I, you know, I think we, every generation looks at the previous and the yeah. And the next one coming through a critical mind and then that’s okay. As long as it doesn’t turn into a critical heart, you know? Right.

Critical mind is good. Um, whether it’s. Streaming services or media consumption or these phones in our pocket, which the science is in, especially on phones, there’s no denying, right? The addictive just based on physiology, the addictive reality, that is your, your phone and those

26:40 Chris Grainger
dopa, those dopamine drips real.

I mean, yeah, you

26:42 Ryan Britt
can’t real stuff. The science is way in at this point. There’s yep. That said, um, it, it ultimately comes down to choices. Humans make choices and they, they choose where their time goes. They choose what perspective they’re gonna have. Uh, they choose how they respond. They choose what order they live under.

And, and me too. And sometimes those choices are easier, uh, easier than others. Um, what I would say is the reason we so easily me included, uh, give ourselves to these numbing pursuits of trying to not be bored. Mm-hmm . Is because, um, our imagination one we’re unhinged from purpose, right? The majority of people are unhinged from purpose.

They are not living on purpose. They are not living with purpose. They are not trying to cultivate and to grow and to, to, to see a harvest of fruit. They’re not, they’re just trying to not be bored. And, um, the, the majority of human pursuit is, is sometimes preachers will be like, uh, they they’ll like preach against happy and say, um, and we do it here too.

It’s like, don’t chase happy. Don’t chase happy. But I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. I don’t think most people wake up every day trying to like find happy. Okay. But what they’re trying to do is to not experience sad,

28:15 Chris Grainger
you,

28:16 Ryan Britt
there you go. Yeah. They, they, they’re not trying to, they’re not trying to, to live purposeless.

They’re just trying to, to not feel heavy.

28:29 Chris Grainger
I see it. You

28:30 Ryan Britt
know what I mean? Yes. And, and that, that not feeling heavy. Life is heavy. It is purpose is heavy. We’ve been given everything we need by the spirit of God for life and godliness. Jesus says my yo is easy. My burden is light. And so his, the yolk and the burden of following Jesus is far lighter and guaranteed to be joy filled different than just waking up and living.

Right. But it still is. There’s still a purpose to it, a yoke to it, you know, a meaning to it. And so I would say that, um, we spend our life on a cycle of trying not to do anything that produces negative emotion and anywhere we feel negative emotion. We try to replace that with something distracting. Right.

Um, and, and so we just give ourselves to these numbing numbing things. And so the categorically for me, you, you ask, what are you to do categorically, for me, it starts, it started with, and it starts with admitting that I am prone to wander Lord. I feel it. And I’m prone to wander toward mind numbing, distracting activities that are void of purpose and meaning in and of themselves at any time.

They’re not necessarily bad. The, the problem is we binge on them, right? Yeah. We just give ourselves over to them over and over and over and over again. And, and before too long, we’re, we’re just living a meaningless, meaningless existence in the spirit of trying to cure boredom and not feel negative emotions.

We get unhinged from purpose. And so, um, here’s, here’s what I was headed. What do you do? Well, I would ask you this. Has your imagination been captivated

30:26 Chris Grainger
by God? Hmm.

30:30 Ryan Britt
Do you have a sense of awe and wonder when you think about what God has done for you through Jesus, have you given yourself to something greater than just the next thing?

Really? Um, and, and so I think that that’s the, the, the prayer and the desire and go on a search for your imagination to be captivated by something greater than Netflix. Yeah. And by something greater than Amazon prime or social media, um, it really is a, a, a, a spiritual act of giving ourselves over to the pursuit of something greater.

Than what, so what only our human experience can provide. And so, yeah, it starts there, man, your mind has gotta be captivated. Right. Right. And then it needs to be cultivated, you know?

31:26 Chris Grainger
Yeah. And I guess a lot of guys, you said that imagination, most of them think, well, that’s just for kids. Right. You know, imagination, you know, once you get to a certain point, you don’t have an imagination anymore, but yeah, you do.

I mean, that’s why you’re, you’re bingeing, Netflix, and you’re, you’re, you’re on Snapchat and Instagram and all these things for multiple hours a day, because you’re trying to, to beat that numbness. And I think to your point, that’s like, I hadn’t thought about approaching that imagination the way that, that, that you’re doing there.

I think that really would resonate with the guys.

31:55 Ryan Britt
Yeah. I mean, I mean, when your mind can go wherever it wants, where does it go?

31:59 Chris Grainger
That that’s a powerful question right there, man. That’s it

32:03 Ryan Britt
to, to be honest. And self-aware about that, you know, my mind wanders at times toward kingdom advancement and like. Deep things of God.

And those are at my best moments, praise God by the spirit of God. Right. But a lot of times my mind wanders to greener grass, like, however I define greener grass. Right. Which is anything other than what I’m currently experiencing. Right. Right. And I call it the myth of there. And so there’s some version of me that believes that if I can just ever get there yeah.

Then ill, it’s just the next step. Yeah. Then I’ll fully and finally be happy. Right. And there could be a number in a bank account. There could be, uh, a relationship status. There could be, uh, a job or a sense of property. You know, for me there often includes a golf course. Like if I can just get to that, you know, that next golf trip or that next experience or that, do you know what I mean?

Oh, yeah. And the ch here’s the challenge is that every time I, I get there, even though there’s moments of fun and there’s moments of lightness in kind of, um, like a breezy existence, you know, which feels good for a moment. Every time I get there, here’s the challenge is that everywhere I go there I am. Uh, and so when I get there, I bring in me with me,

33:28 Chris Grainger
that’s it, every

33:29 Ryan Britt
time, every time.

And so, uh, until I get down in my guts and I get down beneath the surface, and I begin to really think about my motivations, what I’m giving myself to, why I’m giving myself to it. And I begin to find the weeds that are growing in my life to be able to pull them and right. Um, to be able to, to, to get down at the root of those things until I do that, no matter what experience I have experiences cannot produce a soul satisfying content.

You know, and so wherever there is, it is just I’m I’m gonna be there. So right. Within short time, I’m going to experience the same feelings of, of disco Discontentment and unrest because that’s in here not out here. Yeah. Right. So, and that’s sloth at work, man. You know what I mean?

34:24 Chris Grainger
All you’re all over and that’s, uh, I, I do have a follow up.

Let’s take a quick break, cuz I think I wanna touch base on something you just said, because I think that’s gonna really resonate with our guys and, and, and maybe open their eyes a little bit more to how to battle this, this slot that, that keeps coming into our lives. Many of

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So pastor Ryan, you just talked about, you know, if you, if you end up the wherever you go, you’re always there and you’re always chasing the next thing and, and doing that. But I think it all comes back in earlier in the conversation you, you mentioned, uh, the contentment and, and guys, we never seem to be content, but it is biblical.

I mean, if you, that is, that is we have to be seeking contentment and under and trying to, to build on that skillset. Cause I’m not even sure the best way to define it, but I know, I know this when you can, when you, whenever you can achieve content. That that’s where the happiness is. That’s where joy and, and peace and all the fruit of the spirit you’ll find it there.

But guys are struggling with that contentment aren’t they? They

36:07 Ryan Britt
are, they are. And I understand, I understand, um, Proverbs 13, four says the soul of the Slugger craves and gets nothing. Mm. While the soul of the diligent is richly supplied the soul of the slug craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

So think back to boredom is not, um, it’s not that I don’t have anything to do. It’s that I don’t know what to do with myself. Right. And the, the craving without contentment. Um, that seeking and never finding, um, here, it really genuinely comes down to the motivational desire, right? Is your goal to live autonomous in some self-defined version of freedom, meaning I can do what I want.

I want to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it right with whom I wanna do it and how I wanna do it. Mm-hmm and anything that that gets in the way of that is a burden to me is frustrating. Mm-hmm my children, my wife, what? I love him. I’m not saying I don’t love him. I’m not saying I don’t provide for ’em.

I’m just saying my general emotion toward them or toward my job or toward whatever is, is discontent and frustration. Mm-hmm because I crave. But I’m not, I, I, the Slugger craves and gets nothing, but the, the diligent is richly supplied. Right? And so it’s a perspective thing. Do I look at these things as opportunities to bless because I’ve been a blessing.

Do I look at marriage and family as a gift given to me that comes inherently with responsibility in order for me to partner with God in the work of growing and harvesting generational good for his name to sake, right? That’s different, man. That’s different than I just want my kids to be good Americans.

That’s right. I want my kids. I want my kids to grow up and pay taxes and not be bad. Right. As, as popular culture defines bad, that’s different. We’re just

38:45 Chris Grainger
trying to raise good humans. I mean, you hear people say that all the time, man, no,

38:48 Ryan Britt
man, you’re not wrong. Brother, sister, you’re trying to raise missionaries unto the glory of God that are radically sold out in their imagination is captivated with the person of Jesus Christ and the, and the glory of God at work.

And I, and I could preach here, but man, your purpose as a dad is far greater than just raise a good American mm-hmm , there’s more to it than that. There’s it’s deeper than that. Your purpose as God designed God-given is for you to plant gospel seeds and to plant hope and joy and future and passion and self-worth and to, to create an environment where those things can grow under God’s provision and God’s protection, which that is you, you are God’s provision and God’s protection for your family.

And so you’re creating an environment whereby they can grow and then God will bring the harvest home generationally, you know, . Um, and, and so I would just say, give yourself to the work, to what seemingly is mundane. Okay. Give yourself to the work. Right. And so when you’re doing the dishes in the kitchen, are you doing it because it’s an opportunity for you to bless your family to grow in your family?

The, uh, uh, uh, it’s one small example of having a work ethic and not moving on to, to relaxing and resting before the work is complete. Right. You know, are you doing it in the sense, are you doing it with your child, uh, having a, a moment with them whereby you’re putting your hand to the plow? Does that make sense?

Like, absolutely. So I would say stay under the yolk of the purpose and responsibility that God has given you, um, which is to be faithful in the next thing, do the chores and try to do ’em to the best of your ability with a happy heart. There’s a lot of times in your, in your life that your, your heart has actually got to catch up with your mouth.

Okay. And so even when you don’t necessarily feel happy in here, it’s like, oh, it’s I gotta do it again. You’re not necessarily ever gonna escape that feeling. Do it anyway. Right. Ask questions versus just sit vegging out in front of the TV or grabbing your phone and everybody being in the same room, but being a hundred miles apart, right.

Ask questions, you know, just think about the questions you there. The Google machine can give you a hundred questions to ask, you know? Um, and, and so ask questions, stir dialogue, eat meals in the same place at the same time with all the screens off plan dad, you planned date night. Yes. You planned date night.

Um, instead of. Uh, you know, look, I’m not saying seven nights a week. You need to be sitting, having meaningful conversation with your wife for hours and hours and hours. Praise God, if you do I am I, because I do get life is busy. Things happen, you got, oh, excuse me, you got kids. You’d go in this way. And that way, yeah, sometimes you get to the end of the, the day and you get tired.

No problem. The, the challenge is that that becomes, um, that becomes our normal. Instead of the exception, the exception is us finding each other and us communicating and us working together on schedules and budgets and, um, working together on, um, what we want to see in the next season of life for our children and life is happening to us instead of us happening to it.

42:28 Chris Grainger
That’s it. That’s it. And I’m curious too, because you’ve talked a lot about, you know, parents and, and husbands at this point, which is, I’m so glad you went there because if we see some of these behaviors in our kids, you know, what can we actually start doing? Cause if you try to do it all at once or, uh, make these big, massive changes and you’re not changing yourself, uh, I mean, that’s the definite definition of hypocrite there too, but so maybe speak to the dads out there that are seeing maybe their kids are having some slot like behavior, uh, and, and they wanna know how they can help, you know, move, get them past that, you know, lead them towards, you know, that sense of purpose that you’ve been talking about.

Are there any little micro steps that you recommend for the dads that they could start? Hey, I can start doing this today. Planting that seed and making a change,

43:16 Ryan Britt
the spirit of giving and, and giving for the, for cultivating and growing. Um, it’s giving not to get it’s giving because there’s joy because the joy is giving.

Okay. Right. And so let me just put it in the context of following Jesus. Like there’s a, there’s a way to interpret obeying Jesus. Jesus says, uh, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing the name of the father, not the holy spirit and teach them to obey all that I have commanded in low. I be with you even to the end of the age, this is the, the great commission.

Right? Well, so loving obedience to Jesus is kind of the point, right? That’s the point of discipleship. It’s the point of being a dad? It’s the, if you’re, if you’re a Jesus follower, then lo learning how to obey Jesus in these things, lovingly is, is the point. Okay. So let me ask you this. Do you obey Jesus?

Trying to get joy?

44:14 Chris Grainger
That’s a very interesting question. I mean, in some ways I think, yeah, I mean, you feel like you probably are, but cuz you, you, every gal is you like to have that joy in your life.

44:26 Ryan Britt
So, is that a works based thought?

44:29 Chris Grainger
Yes. Yes. Now I’m convicted.

44:34 Ryan Britt
Yes. Right. And so, and I get it ma me too. And the good news is that joy is a fruit of obedience in our life.

Mm okay. So joy is a fruit, not a feeling, right. That’s number one. So what you’re after is joy and purpose and, and, and joy and purpose and meaning and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness, all these things are like, they’re all so married together. Right? Right. And it’s a fruit that God gives us.

And he grows that in us, as we give ourselves to the work of cultivating. And does that make sense in the work of purpose?

45:16 Chris Grainger
Right? That’s that totally makes sense. I’ve never thought of it as a fruit versus a feeling. I mean, that, that is it. Cuz then I can see the cultivation and the growing, like you mentioned.

Our, that that’s what we need to be doing with our kids. And, and it will grow as they

45:29 Ryan Britt
grow. So the fruit of the spirit, Galatians five, the fruit, yep. Singular fruit, by the way, not fruits, not plural. One fruit. The fruit of the spirit is love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.

Think about self control as a fruit growing in regards to the heart of the Slugger. The, the reason the Slugger wins out over and over and over again is because, uh, Proverbs 13, the diligent are richly supplied. We don’t give ourselves to work. We don’t wanna do the hard work, right. We just want things to happen.

Right. Versus being, having self-control growing self-control and being disciplined and diligent in our lives. We don’t, we just want good things to happen without actually planting the, the hard work of good. Does that make sense? And so absolutely dad’s got, so here’s what I would say. One, uh, you love your kids.

You want good things for your kids. You love your family. You want good things, uh, for your family. There’s an order to living, okay. There’s a respons. So giving your kids responsibility and expectations is a good thing. Now, if you’re giving them responsibility and expectations, in order for you to have control, that’s a bad thing.

But if you’re, if you’re, if you’re, if you’re teaching them that life comes with responsibility and expectations and that you have choices to make, and that you can grow good and healthy and godly in your life with your choices, right. Or you can grow Discontentment and you can grow resistance and you can grow unhappiness.

Those are your, you can choose those things, right. And so teaching. Your kids’ responsibility and expectations. So I would just say, don’t be afraid. One to communicate responsibility and expectations, um, and things like chores. What we do is chores, right? That I can’t do my tablet until I do my chores.

Right. I, I can’t get on my phone until I’ve done the thing that I said I would do, or I’ve done the thing that my parents have asked me to do. So finish the work. And I would say that to dad as well, like dad, dad, your day is not done. You’re not done working until you finished the work. This is the, the old Testament.

Biblical mandate of work is six days a week, sun up to sun down. And then you have one day that’s Sabbath. That’s right. And that’s, that’s a healthy rhythm for work. Yeah. It’s not four and a half days a week with. Two and a half days off for you to do whatever you want, the way you want to do it. And, but I would say showing up at the swim meet, showing up at the gym, showing up at that this is a part of work and growing and cultivating, you know what I mean?

And so I’m not saying that’s not, don’t be at your job 80, 90 hours a week. It’s say I’m doing it for the family, right. That’s not what I’m saying, keep your job in the right place, but also commit yourself to doing the work with your family. And so expectations and responsibilities. Look, if you love your kids and I know that you do a really healthy tool, that I a really healthy encouragement I would give you is get these things under control, man.

Yes. If you don’t, they will be in control. Right. And I, we have to fight like crazy at my house. I say that with no spirit of judgment, none.

49:05 Chris Grainger
And for our listeners, he just held up his smartphone.

49:07 Ryan Britt
Yeah. Sorry. Uh, yeah, you just held my phone up. Get your phone under control. Um, if not, they will control you. And, um, Man.

I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been right on the edge of just throwing my phone in the ocean and going back to like a flip phone. You know what I mean?

49:24 Chris Grainger
I understand completely. I, I coach guys too. I’m like, man, cut all this dog on notifications off, go to a pool mindset versus a push. Cuz every time something’s pushed to you and you’re talking to your wife or your kids, even though you may be trying to be there in that conversation, that one split second that you lost them.

You know that, that you’re you’re out. You’re you’re what did, what did that message say? What did that pop? So cut that stuff off. Cuz it drags us down. They’re seeing your behavior. That’s why our, I mean, Hey our girls, I see my oldest is 11. I think you said yours is 11 too. We don’t have devices yet. I mean they have a tablet.

They can use every now and then, but they don’t have phones or things like that. And their friends are getting them and we look very weird, but I’m okay with I’m okay with weird, you know, I mean that’s, I’m leaning into the weird, because I’m trying to raise up, you know, these girls to follow Jesus and have a love for Christ.

I just feel like until they get to a certain age, they’re not ready. Yeah.

50:19 Ryan Britt
Yeah. I agree. We, our child, my, my oldest is 11. She doesn’t have a phone yet. Um, they have tablets. They can jump on every now and then, but it could be a TV. It could be Disney plus it could be whatever, you know? Um, and again, these things are not in and of themself necessarily bad.

It’s that we binge them. Yes. We depend on them. They become a crutch to cure boredom. Right. Versus giving ourselves and kids don’t

know

50:42 Chris Grainger
boundaries. Right. I mean, they don’t know that stuff yet. I mean, you just let you, if you let a kid sit down and binge, uh, Disney, plus they will do it for eight hours without, without thinking because they need they’re they’re not mature enough.

I mean, just like early Christians, they need help guidance by, by the more mature Christians. I mean that’s and that’s what being a dad’s all about.

51:00 Ryan Britt
Yeah. And I would just encourage you, man again, just like, if you’re, if you’re married, if you wanna be married, if you’re look, you know, if you have kids in your, in the family unit, And this is true of, of the nature of having a job and being trusted with resources in order to produce something, um, the inherent end, those relationships comes responsibility, right.

And comes purpose. And here’s, here’s something that I’ve thought a lot about, and I’ll offer this as my opinion that I’m working through. Okay. Um, there’s two questions you have written on your soul, I think. Okay. Just everybody created the image of God. It’s got these, these questions written on their soul.

Who am I? And what’s my purpose. Who am I? And what’s my purpose identity, always precedes activity. I would encourage you. If you are in Christ, you are a son or a daughter of the most high king. That is your identity. You are hidden with Christ. Uh, you are hidden in Christ with God. You are. Um, uh, an he to the throne of grace and the riches of mercy, you are amen.

You have been given a seat at the family. You have been credited the righteousness of Jesus Christ totally. And fully your sins are forgiven. Mm-hmm, all the things, right? All the gospel things that is your identity, that is who you are. And you are those things. As a husband, you are those things as a father, you are not primarily a father.

You are primarily a son or a daughter of the most high king that has been given fatherhood as a purpose to walk out, being a son of God. Right? Right. Your, your wife is not primarily or first your wife, and she’s not first the mother to your children. She is first a daughter of the most high king, and she has been given motherhood and she has been giving, being a wife as a gift.

By which to steward and to cultivate and to grow and to partner with God in the work of producing good in the world. You see what I’m saying? So yes, who I am starts and husband, wife, kids, whatever your highest call in life is to be loved by God. Yeah. And the new Testament. There’s this word all over the place called beloved dearly.

Dear beloved. My dear children. God’s beloved Uhhuh, right? Jude, the book of Jude, one of the first verses, it says, it says the word beloved and, uh, the, a, the inherent nature of being God’s beloved is break the word beloved apart. It’s to be loved. Yeah. The majority of frustration and angst. My, my friend, pastor Ryan Quan, he preaches here.

He pastors a church out in San Francisco. Great pastor, highly encouraged listening to him as well. He said one time in a sermon here at our church. He said, every problem. That I’ve faced in life or every, every problem that I’ve chosen for myself in life is the direct result of me not believing that God loved me in that moment.

And I, and he said that it took me back and I was like, that is so true. So my, my, my friends that are tuning in here to us, do you believe and receive that God loves you and through Jesus Christ. Totally. Yeah. Right. All of you like, do you, are you living life? Like you think God gave you a hall pass and he is just gonna kinda let you skirt through life.

And then one day when you’re dead, he’ll fix you. Mm-hmm are you living your life? Like you have a good shepherd who laid down his life for you, who bought you at a price and totally redeemed you and his lavishing right now is lavishing his love on you through Jesus Christ. Right? It’s a different way to think, man.

It’s a different way to live.

55:01 Chris Grainger
Oh, it’s totally different. And I think so many guys, you know, your two questions, who am I, what is my purpose and who am my question, particularly for you’re a Christian man that, that I feel like that’s not easier, but we definitely can, can answer that better. Cuz if we have that relationship with Christ, but the what is my purpose, I think that’s just where guys struggle.

And I, and I think that again, you gotta surrender.

55:23 Ryan Britt
You had to talk to him, lemme offer you this. Yeah. What if, who you are, is your purpose.

55:29 Chris Grainger
Okay.

55:31 Ryan Britt
So we think about purpose. We think my purpose is something for me to do Uhhuh and I would argue maybe, maybe at some point down the road, but I, I think the inherent nature of purpose is, is purpose is not first something to do.

It is someone to be,

55:49 Chris Grainger
oh man.

55:50 Ryan Britt
Okay. Yeah. That you are becoming someone. Yeah. The things that are growing in your life, they’re growing towards something. Right. And, and you’re becoming something, your character formation, um, the, the, the, what goes in, grows out, yes, you are becoming something and your primary, primary purpose as given by God is to become like his son.

Jesus. Yeah. And you don’t J that just, just doesn’t happen. Right. And it is partnering with the spirit of God and the word of God and the, and in, in work. And so I would say, what environments are you putting yourself in to join willfully that are, are joining? Are you actively joining God in the work of you becoming, who he’s created you and called you to be right?

Does that make sense? Absolutely. So who, who I am? What if, who I am is my purpose. Yeah. Man, and you spend more time, you spend more time worried about who you’re becoming than whatever the next thing is you’re doing. Because if you can commit to the becoming the doing will follow man, look, Jesus is not primarily interested in your habits.

First. He wants your heart. And if Jesus gets our hearts, then our habits will follow some slower than others, but they will follow. And so, um, I would just encourage my, my brothers here, man, get busy doing the work of, of becoming, how do you do that? Couple of, of recommendations, one, uh, what content that goes in, choose wisely.

The content that goes in podcast like this, a man, Chris here said he listens to three to five sermons a week. He’s got a lot of content going in. Um, you know, whether you’re hope, hopefully you like to, to read books. If you don’t like to read books. No problem. Still read the Bible, listen to the Bible for sure.

Um, but read the Bible. Right. You know, get a Bible reading plan. My, my, my number one go-to for everybody I’m I’m discipling two things. One a long time ago, a man named Henry Black could be released a Bible study called experiencing God Uhhuh. Um, get it. There’s a workbook, go through it. Um, even if it takes you a long time, just commit yourself to the word, to, to the, to the word and the work of God.

So content in second, if you’re not super familiar with the Bible or the arc of the Bible, or you don’t feel like you really understand all the things that God said, one, you can be a really great disciple. Uh, if that’s true and two, there’s a really great resource, no matter the age of your kids called, uh, the children’s story book, Bible.

Yep. And, and I, I actually think it’s a great resource for new believers, for people who are young in the Bible, because it, it’s not the same thing as reading the word of God, but man, it really helps you understand the, the story of God. As told across time, which get helps give you handles on the scriptures.

And so yes, content that goes in too, uh, relationships, formative relationships. And I mean this primarily in specific relation to the church, um, be careful in a digital age I’m pro online gospel planting. All right. Um, but two dimensional relationships and three dimensional relationships are just different.

They eyeball to eyeball is different than eyeball to screen. And so just, I, I pray that everybody, and I know this is easier. Sometimes it’s easier than others, but I pray that everybody finds a Bible preaching, gospel centered church that realizes it’s not perfect. There’s no perfect church. So if you go to church looking for perfect, you ain’t gonna find it.

Right. Um, but find a church where you can sit in and under the word and where you can serve. Right. So much of, so much of the spirit of the diligent is choosing to show up, to serve others with no expectation of something else in return. Right. So just choose to show up, right. And to serve others in Jesus’ name.

Um, the local church, there’s nothing else like the local church in the world. There’s a lot of great places to serve, but there’s nothing else like the local church. And so putting yourself in that environment environment to receive and man plan your VA. How about this plan, your vacations and your trips and your experiences around the rhythms of your local church instead of, instead of planning, just going to church, whenever it doesn’t interfere with your next desired experience,

1:00:48 Chris Grainger
right.

That’s different, right? That is different. I’m pro

1:00:52 Ryan Britt
vacation take a bunch of them. Just I’m pro trips take ’em no problem. You can do all those things in, in Jesus name. I’m just saying like, there’s a lot of things that we prioritize in our life over the environments that could really grow health in us.

Yeah. And so I’m just saying, take stock every now and then just step back and ask the question. Um, and then lastly, I would, I would specifically go after your, the, the, the encouragement around finances and how you order your finance. Oh yeah. Jesus, Jesus says there’s nothing that reveals the heart of the sled faster than your checkbook.

Yep. It’s just spending on whatever. It’s just clicking the next Amazon thing. It’s the, I took Amazon off my phone man, because I, it just, it, it got a hold of me. I’m buying like $13, this and $30 that and seven all the time. And I’m like, what am I doing? You know, like, I’m not thinking about it. I’m not doing things on purpose.

I’m just doing them. That’s right. Um, and so, um, I, I would say, where is God in your finances? Uhhuh? Where is, where is the spirit of giving? Because giving is good in your finances. Um, Jesus actually said, um, I learned this first wrong. You’ve heard it many times. Uh, I, Jesus says that where your treasure is there, your heart will be also, I learned that verse backward.

I actually thought it said where your heart is there. Your treasure will be, but that’s not what he says, Uhuh. He says where your treasure is specifically, he’s talking about finances, right? Where your treasure is there. Your heart will be. And so something goes first and it’s not the heart. Yeah. That where you choose to put your treasure somewhere.

And you choose to give to something first. Yeah. And where you, where, what you trust in first reveals a lot about where your heart’s gonna end up. Right? And so if you go first towards streaming services and first toward experiences, and first towards self pleasure, and first toward whatever version of freedom, and first toward you see what I’m saying, then your heart’s gonna end up there.

That’s right. But if you go first toward the Lord and you go first toward future planning and you go first toward giving in the act of trust and I mean, specifically giving to the local church and giving to savings and giving to future planning. But if you feel, if you go first there, then your heart will end up there.

Right. Exactly. You know what I mean? And so exactly. So, you know, the environments you put in the content you, you take in and then, um, um, specifically on a financial front, um, Really taking category of does is God in my finances anywhere. Right. And am I choosing to trust him, um, in regards to giving for the sake of, of giving and growth.

Um, and you can, you can give to good things. I’m asking you, are, are you giving to God gospel things,

1:04:03 Chris Grainger
right? And I tell guys all the time, man, you, you wanna see what your priorities are, check out your calendar and your checkbook mean that’s tell you your calendar could just be, maybe it’s not on your calendar, but how you spending your time to your point.

So those two areas will, will really that’s that’s Aing exercise to do if, uh, if you’re not aligned correctly. Well, I

1:04:24 Ryan Britt
love what you just said. And let me remind us what we talked about, because you said this word convicting and that this word has been so hijacked by religious, uh, BI biblically uneducated people over the years.

Yes. Um, and, and it’s been used as like a tool to control people. And so exactly, let’s go back to the conversation we had about trying to avoid negative emotion as a way of life. Okay. A lot of Christians won’t give themselves two activities that produce, um, conviction or creative friction in their life between light and dark, because they’re trying to avoid negative feelings.

Mm. But let me, let me remind you of, of Romans chapter eight, verse one that says there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus. Right. So conviction is not this negative. You should be doing better and work harder and get your stuff together. And so if you hear this conversation and you’re like, you’re like, you, you feel these, these negative feelings I would say, is it negative?

Or is it just heavy? Right because heavy, heavy can be welcome, um, because the word glory actually means heavy. And so the, the weight of living according to God’s plan can at times feel heavy, but that heavy is, is, is purpose and, and trust and in invitation. So conviction really is the invitation into deeper meaning as given to us by God.

And it’s, it’s, it’s identifying things that are keeping us from living in a deeper, more meaningful existence. Right. But, and sometimes, but what it does is it feels a weighty on our flesh and we don’t wanna feel negative emotion. So we just ignore it or we just stow it versus doing the work. Does that make sense?

Right? Absolutely. So I would say welcome the weight, um, knowing that Jesus’ burden is easy and light. Um, but he does say the word yolk. My yolk is easy. My, my, my, my, my yolk is light. I would say, stay under the yolk. Yeah. Stay under the yolk of Jesus. I promise long term. It is far easier and far lighter than the yo of this world.

Right?

1:06:54 Chris Grainger
Amen. We’ll pass around. We, we have one more thing we like to do. Do you have time to do a lightning round? Yes, sir. Let’s do it. All right. Let’s take a quick break guys. And then we’ll come back and we’ll do hit the lightning round. Then we’ll be we’ll wrap up. And pastor Ryan here,

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I got eight questions. I’m just gonna fire. He can be quick, hit answers back. So, you know, just whatever comes first to mind. So get us to get us going. What’s your favorite thing about God,

1:08:08 Ryan Britt
man. My favorite thing about God is the fact that he is sovereign and near yes. I mean what grace barely understand it and it is just the most unbelievable right.

Beautiful thing. And so the nearness of God and the sovereignty of God and the fact that I have the grace to know. Both by Jesus. So yeah, man, for sure.

1:08:35 Chris Grainger
Now what now flip that what’s the least favored or something that, that, that you struggle with about God,

1:08:42 Ryan Britt
I struggle, uh, at times understanding God’s choice of timing.

Right? Right. His timeline and my timeline are not the same.

1:08:53 Chris Grainger
Totally. We’re not on the same counter. It seems like. Right.

1:08:56 Ryan Britt
that’s right. And, and, uh, there, there are a lot of times where, um, we’re asking and seeking and knocking for what I think are good God honoring things, right. Your cures and health and sustained life.

And sometimes God has another plan and he does. And so I trust him. Yeah. I trust him, but there there’s, uh, that gets pretty weighty sometimes.

1:09:26 Chris Grainger
Absolutely. So next question. What are you currently struggling with right now?

1:09:32 Ryan Britt
I am struggling right now with, um, the, the spirit of hurry. Oh, okay. And it’s connected to a lot of the things that we’ve been talking about.

Um, I don’t mind busy as long as I’m busy doing things that are like planting, growing, and harvesting. Right. Right. You know, busys become an identity, but that’s not what it is. It’s okay. To, to, to have full days and to go to bed tired, you’re supposed to, right. You’re supposed to go to bed tired from working and creating.

And so, um, but then there’s this thing that happens in, in my spirit that that hurry is different than busy. Yes. And sometimes I just feel like I’m always in a hurry. And I can’t enjoy the moments that God puts in front of me. There’s no margin for divine interruptions. There’s no eyes to see opportunities with my children or, or intentionality with my, with my wife.

And so, um, that I think right now, I’m trying to really, um, there’s, it is the result of, of not using Sabbath correctly. It’s the result of, uh, not doing some of the work of the diligent and, um, hurry the spirit of hurry. That feeling of hurry. It’s like, you know, when you’re driving your car and you don’t know something’s wrong until the light goes off on the dashboard, right.

That’s what hurry is to me. And some of this, as soon as I start feeling like I’m in a hurry all the time, that’s a light on the dashboard going off, right? Hold on. Brody. You gotta take, you gotta slow down here. You gotta start asking some questions cause you, I actually know and have lived. Where the end of that goes, which is anxiety, field, uh, control obsessed.

Right. Um, you, you know what I mean? Like naturally joyless, just grumpy, you know? Yeah. Yes. And, um, and so that, that I can feel that going on, um, you know, our church is, is awesome, but it’s got some pace to it. There’s no doubt about it. And, um, yeah. And so, um, that’s, that’s a long answer to a short question, but I’m really the, the, the spirit of hurry and not good enough, not fast enough, got more and more and more, more, more, I can feel that thing creeping up and, and, uh, yeah.

And so that’s where I’m struggling.

1:11:59 Chris Grainger
Okay. What’d you spend too much time doing last year.

1:12:04 Ryan Britt
uh, man, I, I probably spent too too much time, you know, for me it goes to my phone for sure. Yeah. Uh, I, I spent too much time. Checking emails and I don’t have social media. So you can’t post any of my social media in the notes cuz I don’t have any.

Okay. And uh, I got rid, I got rid of it in 2020. It was really had a really negative impact on my mental health. Yeah. Um, and so I was just like, what am I doing? You know? Um, but even then, uh, I can get buried in some emails and some calendaring and, and uh, text messages, you know, 250 unread text messages at any given time.

And I can just get lost in that. So yeah, for sure, man. It’s I spent too much time looking at a screen instead of looking my children and, and my wife in the face.

1:12:58 Chris Grainger
There you go. Yep. Two more questions. So what’s a, what’s a new habit you’re trying to create,

1:13:05 Ryan Britt
uh, create a habit of, uh, what I would call, uh, in take an inventory.

Okay. And so it’s looking, it’s what you said earlier about your calendar and your spending. Um, it’s, uh, time, talent, and treasure. Um, I, I don’t, I wanna take inventory of my time. I wanna take inventory of how I’m using my talents. Yes, sir. And I wanna take inventory of where my money goes regularly, because if I don’t, what happens is I begin to assume things that were at one point authentic, right.

They’re not authentic, they’re not authentic anymore. And I wanna live from a place of authenticity. And so what does that look like? Um, it looks like a few hours once a month, just reviewing, you know, and yeah. And, and taking inventory on where my time goes and, um, those things. And so taking inventory is a new habit.

I’m forming. I, I dunno if I’d call it a habit as much as it’s like. Something I’m intentionally trying to put in place. That’s a good practice to do it over and over again. So.

1:14:13 Chris Grainger
Absolutely. Yeah. Well the last question pastor on, so, you know, what’s one thing you got a guys listening out there, powerful conversation.

What’s one thing you hope they remember from today,

1:14:25 Ryan Britt
more than anything, if that you would receive and believe that God loves you through Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. And, but

work and sloth and, um, man, read the Proverbs, dig in. Um, I hope you find a gospel centered church. If you don’t have one by far, please reach out to us. Would love to help you in that. But man, more than anything, I want you to know. I want you to receive and believe that God loves you and he loves you through Jesus and he loves you so much that he would give you purpose and meaning.

His purpose and his meaning on the earth for what he’s doing. Yeah. Through creation. He’s invited you into that. And so give yourself to it. Um, because you’ve been loved. You can love, because you’ve been given purpose. You can live in purpose because you’ve been given mission. You can see the fruit of mission.

You’ve been given all the tools that you need to plant, to grow and to harvest in Jesus name. So get, but you won’t just inherently give yourself to it until you receive and belief that God loves you, then that he has good things for you as his kid.

1:15:40 Chris Grainger
I love it. I love it. Well, pastor Ron, this has been wonderful.

Was there anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners on the line within us?

1:15:47 Ryan Britt
Nope. No man. I’m, I’m pulling for you guys and, um, I’m I’m prayerful, uh, that God will use this to encourage and to bless you, thank you for what you do. Thanks for the line within his podcast. I hope that God grows your influence and, uh, grows your ability to help men take faithful next steps in following him.

1:16:07 Chris Grainger
Absolutely, sir, I hope you have a wonderful day. God bless you.

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There you having a wonderful conversation with pastor Ryan, Bri, I tell you what, what they’re doing at church of 1122. It’s unreal. I mean guys, seriously, this is when I, I listen to every week, no joke, three to five sermons a week when pastor Ryan comes on, I definitely check him out as well. Pastor Jovie, obviously we talk, we, we, we, we, uh, we had him on the show before go back and check out his episode.

We’ll even link that up in, in the show notes for you guys. So you go back and check him out, but what a powerful conversation, I mean, you know, the, the vice sloth we can overcome it. We just need to get centered on our purpose. And, and guys, there are so much that he unpacked there. This may be one you need to go back through and listen to again, high level area items that he was talking about, but I’ll tell you what they all will make an impact in your life.

So guys, you know, the question a week this week, we’ve been talking about what slothful behavior needs to be removed from your life. We all have it. Okay. There are areas of my life. I got to get a hold of, you know, I’m at level 6,000 something on, on a silly game called tomb blast. That’s some slothful behavior that’s pulling me away from being, having intentional time with my wife, with my kids, for the line within us.

So guys, we need to understand and observe, go back to the Proverbs. We talk about let’s observe, and then let’s interpret what those areas are in our life. And then let’s apply some fixes and some corrections and be intentional about that. So guys, I pray to this conversation. Really impacted you, that it helps you and it served you well.

And your, and your, uh, growth as a, as a lion, I would ask that you share it with someone, please. That would be a very, that would be just something great you could do is just text it out, you know, say, Hey, I heard this guy talking about this stuff. Pretty interesting topic. I think you should check it out.

Give us a rating and review. That makes a big difference. So go on apple. You should go hit that five star, write a rating. Uh, I mean, write a review rather, you know, 1, 2, 1 to two sentences would be very big. Join the lines, then go to the line within.us, join the lines. Then there’s also a thing on there now for, for 10 scriptures that every line needs to know to fight team, go get that.

It’s just, it’s just a, a PDF we put together to try to serve you guys. It’s printable use actually like a flashcard type of, of, of setup where you can print this out. You can cut it up, you know what you can have in your pocket at all times 10 scriptures to help you fight. And we’re going have to fight, you know, sloth that’s that’s coming after.

If you’re not careful, it can take over, but you can be victorious. So guys, this is a powerful conversation. Go check us out the line with NS again for all our resources. Uh, thank you so much. I pray again that this was a, this this helped you, that this serves you. Well, get after it. Come on, back on Friday.

I got some good tips for you on Friday. A couple of dad jokes. Maybe we’ll get you, ease you into your weekend. Ready to serve. Okay. Get after guys unleash the lion within.