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, right guys. It is your fun Friday episode and you made it through another week. Hallelu, can I get amen. We are here and you know we’re gonna start every episode of the Lion within us with a scripture right this week is spent all about.

First John, Not John, but actually First John. First John, after one verse. But if we walk into light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blow to Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin. Guys, I love that scripture because I tell you what, we need to be in the light cuz the darkness, that’s where the bad stuff happens, right?

We gotta get outta that dark, expose the light, start walking in it actually walking. And if you do that, he will expose to areas of your life you need to work on that you need to be aware of, that you need to repent and turn away from. So go back and check the spiritual kickoff. If you missed that episode, two episodes back, go check it out.

Cause I really dug a little bit deeper into this on how we can actually simplify this and apply it to our life. Okay, now if you missed the last episode, first of all, shame on you. Go. Go back, take it out. But seriously, I had Mike Hatch on from the clc, the Christ led communities, and we unpacked discipleship.

We had a wonderful conversation around what, on what discipleship actually looks like. Okay. How, how we can actually begin, um, implementing the discipleship type programs in our church or just within, within our communities. Guys, you can do this on your own. Right? And Mike just talked about so much. Hell guys wanna be respected.

You know, we, we, we want that, we crave that. And how we need to is if we’re in a discipleship group, we just need to lean in and understand if we’re vulnerable, if we’re real, if we’re raw with each other, that’s where, that’s where the real connection happens. And guys, I think that’s why you listen to the line within us.

I don’t mind telling you the areas that I’m struggling with. You know, even today, even today, having a recording with. I was struggling with some anxiety, you know, just stressed. I mean, is there stress of how you build the lion? Where are the next things going? Uh, with the career? There’s, there’s hell stress.

You’re always, I’m, I’m a hypochondriac guy. This is the way it works. So you just have to understand, you know what? If you have a group of guys though, that you’re doing life with, when you have these stressful moments, when you’re dealing with these things, you can just take it to ’em and know that they’re gonna understand that you’re gonna listen.

They’re gonna pray for you. So guys, I tell you the, the discipleship groups are so critical cause we are. Made to be alone. If you find yourself right now and you’re listening to the line within us and you’re living in isolation, Yeah. Look, stop, stop. First of all, reach out to us. Join the lines, then reach out to the line within us.

Let me have a conversation with you cuz I will try to help you get you plugged in. Well, at least, at least with a group of guys that we can, can serve you, come along beside you and we have opportunities at the line within us with with Bible studies and connections and zoom. There’s at least a virtual opportunity.

Maybe it’s right now you’re struggling with where you’re living. Let us be from a, from a virtual standpoint, let’s use some technology and have a connection that way. So guys, again, discipleship groups are really important. They’re really big part of ministry. I mean, we’re called Math and Matthew to great commission.

Go there for ’em, make disciples. Its literally, we have been called to do that. So I’m so blessed that Mike came in and he shared his ideas on how we can make discipleship. Reality and not be this big thing that we are so scared of and we’ve, we build up in our minds that we can, you know, we have to have all these boxes checked.

We have to have to be this perfect person. We have to know all these different areas. No, right now, wherever you’re at, if you’re a believer, you’re equipped. And if you’re willing, right? If you’re willing, you got to remember, you gotta gotta have a willing heart. God is going to guide you. You know, he doesn’t call to qualify.

He qualifies to. So once you get that call, lean into it and let him take the, just let him take the wheel. If you do whatever he tells you to do, you’ll never go wrong. Okay. Now give you some tips. You know, for fun Fridays, we’re gonna give you a health wealth and a self tip. Okay. Health tip. This actually came from part of our, our lines with n a study group.

Okay. Guy named Mitch. I’m gonna tell you his last name, but his name is Mitch. He’s awesome. He’s a, he’s just a rock. He’s got a heart for the Lord, and he’s like, You know what? For, for from a health tip, when it comes from, from, from my mind and making a decision, it’s like I look for three things.

Conviction, peace, and unity. He’s like, If I had conviction about it, okay, you know that the Holy Spirit is stirring something in my, in my heart, and then I have a piece about it, and you take it to the Lord in prayer. Maybe you talk to your wife about it, and then you have that unity, right? There’s no, there’s no division, there’s no, there’s no stress.

There’s. Uh, you know, divide whatsoever at that point, you know, okay, I just need to act, need to make a decision. So I just thought that was a wonderful piece of advice. Again, he brought this up as part of our line within this Bible study group. Guys, you’re missing a major opportunity to connect with guys who are just having real conversations.

Where, where we, we, we dig into God’s word and we try to find ways to simplify and apply. To our life. Okay. And then that’s it. We make a commitment each week, so there is some accountability there. So that probably is gonna run off a bunch of you guys right there. But for the guys who are not scared and actually wanna lean in to be accountable, this type of group, these groups, that’s where it happens.

So thank you Mitch, for this one. Dec, the decision time connection, peace and unity. Now for your wealth tip, discipleship groups grow big time with experiences. Now, Mike talked about this, you know, going on overnight trips and camping and things like. From a well standpoint though, got budget for ’em, guys.

Okay? It’s not something that you wanna just fly by the seat of your pants and make a decision with okay. You know, the trips and experiences you’d really need to plan for ’em. And you know what? If you have, uh, one or two a year, you could plan from months ahead so it doesn’t hit you your budget that one month big time, right?

You know, So don’t create stressy and we’re trying to avoid stress. Don’t create stress as your wife. Like seriously, start planning this out. Maybe make you a little spread. Whatever you need to do, come up with a, with a budget around, okay, this trip is gonna cost 500 bucks. Four of us are going split that up and, you know, throw in some ancillary costs and then you’ll have a number you’ll be working towards.

Okay? But you, the main thing is don’t just throw it as a last minute thing. Be intentional about your budget, but budget around the experiences with your discipleship group. Okay. That’s, I think that’s really important to, so that you can actually get out, like Mike said, do life together. Okay. Now self. And again, this came from our, just our, our bible study group guys, they, they’re bringing tips and when they, when they bring up tips, I’m gonna share ’em with you guys.

And the self tip is complacency kills. This is from Steven. He’s been, he’s been a big part of our group. He does, he’s doing wonderful thing coaching executives. And he’s like, he’s actually, uh, ex-military. He’s like, You know what? I learned this in the military that can places he kills As soon as you get used to the mission.

You just get used to, you know, you’re doing day in, day out, day in, day out, day in, day out. That’s when bad things happen. We’ve gotta fight against it. We’ve gotta fight against that guys. And that could be within our discipleship group, That could be within our marriage, that could be within our careers, everywhere.

Don’t just settle in. Complacency is something that you have to be very, very aware of. Okay? Now, in our marriages in particular, right, that we, we definitely don’t want complacency in our. So from a discipleship group standpoint, if all you’re doing is meeting, you know, once a week and once every other week, and you opening up guys where you’re having a few little bit of conversation and then you leave, while that is good, you need to mix it up some, do some stuff together.

Maybe you need to go shoot some basketball. Maybe you need to go for a run. Maybe you need to go to the gym. Maybe you need to just go kayaking, get outside, go for a hike. Find something that the whole group can do and go do it. And knowing not everybody is, is wanting to go do acts, throwing and all this.

But I, I, I would be hard, you know, hard to, to believe that a group of guys wouldn’t want to get together and maybe go for a hike, just go through a walk in the woods, you know, just, just to get out in nature. Okay? So, again, remember, complacency, kills, be careful, fight against it. Want, and we want our, in our marriages, we wanna keep that spark burning, okay?

So we had to be very, very intentional about that. So there you go guys. There are your three tips your. When it comes to making a decision, conviction, peace and unity, well tip discipleship groups. You need to make sure you understand that you are budgeting for them. And from a self tip, complacency kills.

So keep that in mind. Now, the book of the week, this week I wanna share this cuz this is actually a book from that with my key works with this, with this. His name is Chris Bollinger, and he wrote this book called Daily Strength for Men. It’s great, It’s got a, a, a leather balance. It’s a 365 day devotional.

And I, and guys I know, you’re like, Well, there’s all devotions are the same. Well, I’m wrong. They’re not. This is pretty cool because Chris, what he, what he does this, he just kind of works from the beginning of the Bible and every week, every day rather it’s a daily devotional. He just moves along in the Bible, so you.

When you begin, obviously he’s starting a genesis. He just works all the way through, all the way through, and he does everything in pretty much Old Testament. He stops at, he stops at a New Testament. So it’s pretty cool that you’ll start from Genesis, go to Malachi and get a, a devotion every day that he gives you some context to think about and he gives you some questions for reflection and applications.

So guys, this is a very practic. Uh, Devotion for Men. It’s called, again, Daily Strength for Men. Go check out the show notes. We’ll be featuring this as the book of the week this week, obviously, guys, and we’re actually gonna be having Chris on the show. He has another book I’m gonna save that one for, for his episode.

But again, this is a really good resource. So if you’re looking for devotion, again, it’s all Old Testament, which is kind of cool the way he did that. It’s pretty neat. Works away through the Bible in. I highly encourage you guys adding this to your library. Chris is also just a great guy. He helps Mike on that Empowered Manhood Podcast, so he’s like the co-host.

So just a fun guy and you gotta love his name, right? Chris, you can’t go wrong there. So anyway, dead joke time. All right. Why did the crab cross the road? Well, it didn’t. It used a sidewalk. Hey guys, it’s gonna be hard to beat Dallas. So number two, guess who I bumped to on the way to. Everyone. So there you go guys.

Number one, why did a crab cross the road? It didn’t, it used the sidewalk. And number two, guess who I bumped into on the way to the optician, everyone. So there you go. Hopefully let me know which one hits best for you. Uh, I can go either way this week. I think they’re both pretty, pretty good. I think for, for if you have the younger kids, you’ll probably get a little chuckle out, out of the crabwalk one.

You know that. I think that’s pretty, pretty good that a question we’ve talked about all week. How do you make disciples? It’s a very simple question, but if sometimes guys have a, a really hard time answering it, and guys, if this, if that question convicts you, it’s okay. It convicts me too. I’ve had to start my own disciple group, discipleship group.

I’ve had to lean in and do it because, you know what? I didn’t have the men, I didn’t have the guys in my life that I needed to have, you know? And so it takes effort. It, it takes, uh, intentionality. You not, it’s not just going fall in. Now if you get invited into a discipleship group, check it out. You know?

And if you’re feeling good about it, lean into it. Actually be a part of it. But you know what? If it, the connection’s not there, don’t try to force it. It’s not like a square peg in around hole type thing. Be careful. But if you actually pray about it, take it to the Lord, you’ll find ways to make disciples and to be a disciple yourself.

Okay guys, So just remember you, you have to, you have to, You can’t be a sideline Christian. You gotta get in the. It’s not, it’s not the pastor’s job to make the disciples all the time. It’s you. You, if you’re listening, you are responsible. And I guys, I know you want to do it. I know you want to. I know you’re like, Well, Chris, I don’t know enough.

I’m scared, I’m nervous. I don’t know if I can do it. That’s combination that comes straight from Satan. Find that crap up and send it back to the gates of hell where it belongs. There is no combination for those in Christ. Jesus guys. Got to remember that, and I have to tell myself that every day. Cause I constantly tell myself I’m not good enough.

I’m not smart enough. I don’t. That’s all from Satan. You’re qualified right where you’re at, and he will keep qualifying you if you are willing and if you obey. That’s it guys. So I hope you enjoyed this Fun Friday. Give us a rating and review. Seriously, guys, five star rating and review. That makes a big difference.

If you’ll do that, you’ll check out the line within Dous. From there you can, you can join the lines. Then that’s free guys. That’s just the way you get connection with. We have a lot of things coming up. A lot of things are in the works guys. We’re gonna be rolling out a membership. We have classes, we have Zoom calls, We have um, uh, bible study.

We have the, the, the online course. Guys, there are many ways that we are building to serve you in your journey. Okay? The only way, the only way that we can serve you is if you jump in and be part of Alliance then, okay? Don’t just be a. There are plenty of consumers out there, and I get it, guys, you just wanna, I just wanna go listen to the next podcast.

It’s fine. But for the guys that are serious and that are finding value, go to the Lions den right now. The line within.us. Join us right there on the main page. Join the Lions. Then I’m gonna reach out to you. We’re gonna have a Zoom call. We’re gonna have, we’re gonna actually have a conversation. I do this with everybody who joins the Lion.

Dan, I offer the invitation for a conversation. You know why? Because we need connection. Men need to. So let’s have a connection. Let’s have a conversation. Let’s go from there. You guys, again, thank you so much for joining us. Come back next week, we’ll have another, another set of wonderful conversations aimed to serve you, to help you be the leader you’re predestined to be.

Again, guys, we’re trying to bring you truth that’s gonna help build that confidence in you. You can do this, guys, I’m so convinced, and I tell you what, once you just, once you lean in and you just, God, show. He’s gonna give it to you. All right guys, so come on back. Enjoy your weekend. Let us know what doing us dad jokes work.

Again, go check out Mike and the cool things he’s doing at clc and I highly encourage you to connect him with your pastors. Go check add, have the conversation at your churches. If you don’t have discipleship groups, make conversation happen. And then from there, you got some resources now. All right fellas, Get after.

After it. Have a great weekend. Unleash the lion within.

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We are men who have fought the good fight and come out victorious. The lion within us is here to help you stop feeling lost, defeated, and alone. Instead, find community and connection with other men that will help you achieve your goals. Live a life of purpose and be the leader God intends you to be.

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