Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast sermon Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders they’re predestined to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainger. Let’s jump. All right guys. It is your spiritual kickoff for the week, and I hope you’re ready. We’re gonna be digging into some great scripture today, and I know you’re gonna be excited about it.

So thank you. Thank you. You know, first and foremost for coming. So let’s, let’s jump right in here, guys. We’re gonna be in the book of Judges, okay? Judges chapter four, and we’re gonna look verses one through nine. I’m gonna unpack that in in depth, but it specifically, verse eight, Barack says to her, If you go with me, I will go with you, but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.

All right. We’ll be talking about a lot of things with this scripture here today, particularly for this week, we’re gonna be talking about leadership. Okay? Specifically anointed leadership and what that looks like. And so this scripture has a lot of implications, lot to learn from. First thing we need to know is where is the book of Judges?

Okay. That’s very important. It’s the seventh book of the Bible, okay? And so it’s actual Joshua. It’s before Ruth. That’s where you’ll find. This is a great story of Deborah and Barack. Okay? You may have heard this story in church or in Sunday school at one at some point, uh, but it takes place when the Israelites were under persecution from the Kenna Knights.

Okay? Now there’s a lot to look at here, and I just want, I thought for this bishop kickoff be a little bit different. Just gonna read a, some of the verses to give you some context to particularly to what was, what’s going on. Okay? So, The Israelites were, were, were, were, uh, being persecuted against the Canaanites, Canaanites, rather.

So the Sons of Israel cried out to the Lord for, he had 900 iron cherries and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for 20 years. Now, Deborah was a prophets and she was judging Israel at the time, so she was a prophets and a judge. The Sons of Israel came to her for judgment and she sent in Summon Barack, and she said to him, Behold the Lord of God has commanded.

Go forth and march to Mount Tabor and tape with you. 10,000 men from the Sons of Natal. From the sons of Lon, and I will draw out to you, sister. I will give him and to your hand. Okay? Verse eight. This is where it gets interesting. Barack says, If you will go with me, then I will go with you, but if you will not go with me, I will not.

Now, she said, I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey you’re about to take. Or the Lord will sell. Cesa who is, he was the person who was basically oppressing them. He’s going sell him and to the hands of a woman. Now, guys, he gets, it gets interesting as you, as you keep kind of digging into judges, I, I recommend just go to judges and read this one all the way.

But it says, arise this day is what the Lord is giving you. He’s gonna give, tosis is gonna go in your hands. The Lord has gone out before you. So he went down, Barack went down to, to the mount like he was told to. And then basically this guy CI bounced. He left, okay? All the army of CI was fell by the edge of the swords.

None of ’em were left, so he Barack wiped them all out except for the king. Okay? Except for the king. The king ci, he fled away. He again, he, he, he bounced out. He was rolling out on foot, okay. And he came and just to a lady, and they were camping and her name was jail, Went to meet Cice and said to him, Turn aside my master and turn aside to me.

Don’t be afraid. And he turned aside to her and she covered him with the rug. He said to her, Gimme something to drink. So again, this girl, she was being very hospitable, saying, Right, he was on the rug. So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him something to drink, and she covered. And he said to her, This is sister.

I said to her, Stand in the doorway at the tent and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you and says, Is anyone there that you should say no? So basically he was asking her to lie , Here’s where the really, the rubber makes wrote. But jail took a tent pig and seized to hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the pig into his temple.

And it went through into the. And behold, Barack pursued Citra jail, came out to meet him and said, Come, I will show you the man who you’re seeking. He was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple. So guys, lot again, lot of things in a back air, right? But don’t miss a contractual area of this text. Okay?

Barack had a classic. Classic. If you then I context right? It says right here, if you will go with. Then I will go. He missed it. He missed the blessing of the Lord because he would not act in faith. Okay. And to be a leader, you have to act in faith sometimes, right? We have to trust God and when the deck is stacked against us, we gotta trust him the most At that moment.

At that moment, it’s easy to trust God when things are going good. It’s easy to be a leader when things are going. The true test of a leader doesn’t come during the moments of the, of, on the mountaintops. It’s in the valley. Who shows up then? And then You have to understand God sometimes is going to speak to us through other people.

One thing that that really stood, stood out to me when I was studying this and looking through the scripture that I noticed Barack didn’t pray about the word he got from Deborah, right? He didn’t pray at. He just, he, he immediately made a decision, right? He immediately, he immediately went to a contractual type thinking, right?

So often we forget sometimes to make the, to take that basic step of praying and giving it to God to ask for that discernment to know which steps to take for right? Because not every, every word you give for someone is gonna be from God. Some others, it’s gonna be from Satan. But if you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, he will tell you.

And that acting on faith takes courage. And, and often we cannot see what lies ahead because that’s what’s called acting on faith. Talk about a leap of faith, Is that right? You don’t necessarily need to see the next step, but you just do it anyway. But to be an effective leader, we got to remember, right?

Leaders go first. Very simple. Leaders go first. Do not forget this. Don’t mistaken this, okay? They’re out. And it’s from those experiences where we, where, where we learn and we grow in our abilities. As a leader, you don’t wake up on the morning and you’re just a leader. They’re not just born, takes time, takes experiences, takes those lumps and those those hits and those bruises makes you stronger.

Okay? Think about what God has called you. What God is wanting you to do right now? Are you, Maybe you’re riding in the car, maybe you’re on a trip, you know, maybe you’re on a walk. I don’t know where you at, where you’re listening to. What has God called you to do? Okay? Are you acting right now as this a contract?

Well, God, if you do this, then I’m going to do that. Or do you treat it what he’s called you to do as a covenant? No matter what I. Guys, you know, I talk about marriage in this way. Marriage is a covenant, not a contract. It’s no, if you, then I, it’s no matter what I do with marriage, same thing when you’re to, applies to what you’ve been called to do by the Lord.

Okay? So either you trust him and you act in faith, and you do whatever he tells you to do or you don’t, and you act on your own. Now look what it costs to Barack. I mean, crazy. He had the. He had the word from the prophets, from the judge and she laid it out. You know, the blessing will come to the hands of a woman.

I’m sure that was hard from a rock to hear, and I’m sure he didn’t believe it. And I’m sure probably when he was looking at the entire Army sl, he was like, Yeah, I got this. But he missed a big one. He missed it. And the blessing did come to her. The guys, this is an, This is an opportunity to learn from scripture, simplify and apply.

Where are you resisting God right now? Where are you not listening? Where have you put him in a box, say, God, so long as you do this, then I’ll do that. But I’m not gonna do that on my own, just outta faith. Cause ultimately that takes, that takes a lot of courage. And if you can’t see the next step, particularly as guys, we wanna see the next steps.

We wanna know what’s coming. We don’t like that unknown. Gotta be careful here guys. Gotta be real careful here cuz so much can go wrong. The simplest thing I can tell you, do whatever he tells you to do. That’s it. You’ll never go wrong that way. Now is that easy? No, it’s the furthest thing from easy. But it is important.

And guys, I really encourage you, really, really encourage you to lean into that. Do whatever he tells you to. Now guys, this week we’ll be talking about anointed leadership. And some leaders, they have that anointing. You know, when that happens, others just naturally wanna follow it, right? And this week’s guest gonna bring a ton of information and wisdom around leadership, how it’s grounded in scripture.

Do not wanna miss it. Now, guys. Now you may be thinking, Well Chris, I’m not a leader. I’m, I wanna be guys. Everybo every man out there you’re leading. If nothing else, you are leading yourself and how you lead yourself matters. So come, you’re not gonna wanna miss this one. Come back and check it out. The question I want you to think about right now, what does confidence mean to you?

Are you a confident leader? Because people, they can feel it. They know you just know when someone walks in with confidence, right? You have that assurance, you have that, that, that. That valor to just, I’m, I’m gonna listen. I’m gonna listen right here. This person has something to say and it’s worth saying, right?

So all guys, I want you to have that type of confidence as well. That’s what the lying with Dennis is all about. We’re here to help you. So guys, I pray that that outta judges, that helps you. Now if you’re new to Reliant within us on our spiritual kickoff. You’ll know what’s coming cuz if you have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, today’s your day.

And you may be wondering, you may just be kind of playing in fringes and checking out some of this Christian stuff to see what some of this Christian stuff’s all about. And if that’s the case, you landed on the line within us, you’re in a great place, okay? But here’s why we love you. God loves you, and we want you to be in the brother.

His brotherhood not to line within his brotherhood, but his the only way to do that, the only way to do that is the first understand that you are a sinner. That’s it. You’re not a mistake in need of a life coach. You are a sinner in need of a savior, okay? And the only way, the only way you can get outta your sin, it’s putting your, your trust in Jesus Christ as Lord.

So it was very simple process, very. Admit that you’re a sin. You just have to admit it. This is the hardest part, particularly for men. It’s hard to admit that we have something wrong. Cause we wanna feel like we got it all together. Well, there’s nothing going on with me. I got it all together. Nope, Nope.

You need to admit that you’re a sin, but you need to believe that Jesus is the son of God Now. Now again, Jesus came from heaven to earth, born of a version. Walked amongst us, gave us all these parable, sh all these miracles, taught us so many things. Then hung on the cross for our sin, For your sin, for my sin.

And then three days later, rose, after he died, three days later, rose overcame death. Now he sits at the right hand of the father and it says no one comes to the father except through him. The only way to. It’s through a re relationship with Jesus Christ. So you have to believe, You have to believe that that’s true, and you have to confess him as Lord.

Lord, I can’t do this on all I need you. I’ve tried it my way, and my way just isn’t working. And Lord, I know your ways are so much better. So I invite you into my heart. I invite you to lead my life. I’d like you to just show me through your Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do? How can I serve you? And after you’ve done that, the Holy Spirit will come.

It will replace your heart. You’ll have a new heart at that point, guys or girls, you’re with the king. You’re ready. You’re ready to serve him. You’re ready to make an impact on the kingdom. So if you just pray that prayer, here’s what I want you to. I want you to email us support@thelionwithin.us. And here’s the only reason I want you to email us.

We wanna come alongside and, and give you some, uh, some support that you’re going to need. Satan’s gonna attack, he’s going to attack. He doesn’t like the fact that now you’re in the kingdom, but that’s okay. We’ll go give you some resources to help you. We’ll help you, help you find a church, help you get plugged in with the right community, plug in with our community.

So we can come alongside you and be the iron that sharpest iron and help build you up. Cause at this point, if you just accepted Christ, you are essentially just starting. You’re a baby, you’re a baby Christian. And that’s cool. Baby Christians are awesome cuz they’re full of fire, full of vigor, full of energy, and they’re ready to share with others.

So happy for you. So again, you just accepted Christ Support at the line with. Guys remember this, The, the scripture I highly encourage you just go back and read Judges four. If you read judges four, it will take you into Judges five. Obviously it follows judges. Five is pretty interesting cuz there’s a song that Deborah wrote, but it, it, it talks about a little bit more in depth about how, how this story unfolded and then from a rock standpoint as well.

Okay? I check out Judges four. If you get some extra time, read Judges five as well. I think that you’ll be encouraged, you’ll get a lot of w of insight. This scripture, it opened my eyes tremendously. I really learned a lot about this, this, this, obviously this, the accounts here and how to apply that in my life.

The big application takeaway that I had from this was, Look, just because I don’t understand it and I can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not right and it’s not what God is putting forth. Cause Barack God laid it out for him. I mean, he literally laid it out for him. He just wouldn’t. He was too convinced in his way.

Guys, we gotta be careful there. All right, so come on back on Wednesday guys. Give us a rating and review. Please. If you haven’t done that, go ahead and do that. Write that five star rating, write a review that makes a big difference. Uh, go check out the line with N Us. You have all our resources there, guys.

You know, we have the new community. We definitely want you to be part of that. Guys. Do not miss an opportunity to jump in on this community. These guys are engaging daily. We have events, we have line lunches, we have bible studies guys, we have all sorts of things that are in the works to serve you, to be the leader your predestined to be.

It’s gonna be a lot of inside resources. We have courses available on inside the community as well. Guys, the beauty of this community, it’s not in Facebook, it’s not in Instagram, it’s not in any social media network that can shut us. So that we can stand on the gospel, we can proclaim what needs to be proclaimed and we can do it safely, okay?

But in a way that’s gonna help serve each other. So guys, go check out the show notes. Check out our website. You have ways to connect with us there. If you do wanna follow us on socials, that’s fine. We’re on Instagram, we’re on Facebook, We do, we do play in those areas. Maybe you wanna be a donor to line within us.

You wanna support us monetarily? Go check out the website. You can donate right there, guys. The biggest thing, share with other. That’s my biggest ask, share with other people. I just want the line within Dennis to make the impact on the kingdom that I know the Lord is, is, is leading. He let us start this for a reason.

So guys, don’t just be an observer. Share it with other brothers out there. Get it in their hands. Come back on Wednesday. We’re gonna re digging into anointed leadership. Pretty big topics, a heavy topic, but guys, it’s got a lot of valid. It’s got a lot of practical ways it’s gonna make an impact in your life, I guarantee you.

So come on back, look forward to seeing you guys here on on the next episode. Thank you again for taking time to listen to us. Have a great day, and unleash the lion within.

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