Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I’m your host, Chris Granger. Let’s jump in. Alright, fellas, it is your spiritual kickoff of the week. I hope you’re excited. I hope you’re ready. Let’s dig in and we’re gonna be in the Gospel of Luke.

Okay, the gospel. Luke chapter 15 verse. So he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him as that is the very end of a, of the, the, the parable of the prodigal son.

We’re gonna unpack this one. I love it. It’s going to really, hopefully gonna come together for you guys if you’ve never really spent some time looking at this parable, man, I’m hoping that it’s just going. The spirit’s gonna reveal some things to you during our time together today. So the first thing we need to know is, where’s Luke now?

One-on-one stuff. I know many of you guys are probably rolling your eyes, but look, not everybody knows this stuff. Okay. So that is a New Testament. Matthew, mark, Luke, John. That’s your four gospels. Okay, so Luke is the third gospel. If you got to John, you went too far. Just back up one. It’s okay if you, if you’re at, if you at Mark just keep going.

Okay. So it’s the third ti, it’s the third gospel. Quite frankly, it’s one of my favorites cause Luke was a physician. Very detailed, lot of information in Luke, and he just goes into to, to great depth, to give us some insight to things that we just wouldn’t know and that Jesus did. And I’m just so thankful that we have Luke that we can go to, to learn more and more about our Lord, about our Lord Jesus.

So, uh, again, this is a very well-known parable. Okay? Very well known parable. Most people notice as the parable of the prodigal sign. This is towards the ends of it, this verse today. And this comes after two parables. Okay. And a parable that’s, Jesus taught a lot with these parables, right? So it’s like a earthly story with a heavenly meeting.

That’s, that’s kind of what a parable is, right? So he starts with a lost sheet parable. You know, we had a hundred, she, uh, she, uh, was it a hundred sheep? And, and one of ’em got lost. What would you, what would you do? You would actually, you’d go out and you’d look for that loss sheep. Right. And this is when things, sometimes we just are naturally lost.

We get naturally lost. We lose our way. We don’t mean to, but we gotta, we have to know right here what sheefer just dumb. They’re not smart animals, right? And they’re just, just Ming around, bouncing around and next thing you know, they look up and they’re just, they’re just lost. They have no idea what happened.

So they get naturally lost, I think as Christian as, as, as men in particular. That’s easy for us to do, guys. That’s just based about, based off the guys they were hanging around with , they’re just gonna naturally pull us away, right? So she’s gotta be careful about that. Then he teaches on the woman who lo, who loses a coin and she searches this house top and bottom.

So she had 10 coins, she lost one of ’em. This is a big deal. This is a, a, a very important coin for her, and the highlights how sometimes in life we can get accidentally lost. It just does, I mean, we can accidentally get lost. Maybe you didn’t intentionally mean to, to, to, to run away from God, but just by circumstances or, or Satan’s cunningness, the next thing you know you’re accidentally lost.

But it talks about the rejoicing that happens in both of those scenarios. When that one was found, that one lost sheep and the one coin was found. Huge, huge celebrations happen. Okay? So then he moves to this parable in it is real. And if you never spent some time studying this, okay, here’s, here’s kinda what’s going on.

So you got a young. And, and so you have older son and a younger son. The younger son, he’s kind of a jerk. He goes to his father and says, basically, gimme my inheritance. Give me what’s mine. I want it right now. I don’t wanna have to wait for you to die. I just want it, give it to me. It’s mine. And then he bounces out.

I mean, he packs up and he is gone. I mean, , he, the Bible talks about me. He, he, he really, he packed up everything he had and he was heading out. So he, this wasn’t just like a weekend trip. He was out then he does what happens all too. He doesn’t have good stewardship principles and he squanders every penny that he has.

He hits the, the literal rock bottom. He was living life 100% by this. I got this rule. You guys know what I’m talking about, right? Where you go around, you feel like you got this. You don’t have to do what? You don’t have to worry about what, what the world’s doing because you know what? I can handle this on my own.

I got this. And guess what? He hit the. And if you’re living by this, I got this rule, you gotta be careful. Cause eventually you ain’t got this. And this is, this is a great reminder of that. And then look what happens. So what, so once he hits that bottom, he’s like, you know what, my way ain’t working. I’m going to just go back to the house and at least I can ask my dad can I work for him.

And, and that’s better than what I’m doing. Cause what he was doing, he was feeding pigs lop guys, this is nasty stuff. Like he, he was talking about I’d rather just eat with the, when I’m feeding the pigs. He had reached that point of low. Maybe you’re at that point of low right now. I totally get it. Life is hard.

Got the trials, you’re the in one, coming outta one or getting ready to go win one. Right? So those things gonna happen. So you should be able to relate with this, but just listen. Okay. Look at what, how beautiful this one verse, this one verse tells us, his father never stopped looking for him. Never. He was constantly searching and he was hoping he’d come home.

Right. But look at what it says. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him. Wow. So his father, even though the son had left and had done everything he shouldn’t do, the father never turned his back. And then how did he respond? It says right here with Compass. He ran, he threw his arms around. If he kissed him and he hugged him, that’s not something that somebody does if they’re holding a grudge or if they’re bitter, right?

He, I mean, he just completely embraced him. There was no bitterness whatsoever. There was no resentment whatsoever. There was no history whatsoever. There was no, I told you so none of that. I know you’d be back, none of that. Why did you waste all my money? Nothing. All it was pure love, pure love. That was it.

In fact, if you, if you keep reading what he, what the father did was incredible. I mean, this is, this is a, a, a father that, that, uh, knew how to throw a party because he threw an incredible party when, when his son returned, he put on the best of the best for his son, put on the best robes, he said, right? And he was celebrating that his son was coming home.

This was a celebration. Now, think of the most extravagant party you’ve ever been. Didn’t have anything on what this guy was doing. This guy, I mean, he was throwing down cuz he was excited, he was pumped up. His son came home, his son came home. Now think about this for one second. Jesus is teaching us this cuz that’s how God loves us.

You look in a mirror right now, you, and I’m not talking to Chris here. I’m talking to you. He loves you just where you are, everything you’ve screwed up, everything you’ve done wrong, everything that you feel like you can’t overcome. He’s got it all covered. That’s it. We’re all sinners. We can’t, and, and we, and we can get lost, you know, like, like we said here, we can get lost naturally.

We can get lost accidentally, or we can get will willfully lost. Because I think what, when I look at dis parable, the, the last one with the son, he willfully left man. Like that was, that was all him. That was all him. He was a That was a willful disobedience. That was a natural disobedience or, or a accidental disobedience?

No, that was a willful disobedience. Okay. And for a second now. For a second. We’ll, he. Was he away from us? And that’s what now we have to remember, we’re, we’re always wi, he’s always with us, but we have to surrender to him. We have to surrender to ’em, guys. And that’s the hard part. And that’s where so many guys that I talk to, they struggle.

They’re just struggling with that surrendering part. You know? Nobody wants their surrender. We wanna be guys, we’re gonna be strong. We’re Tufts, we’re gonna be strong. We’ve got this, I got this. I can do this. I can bench this, I can run this. I know this. I got this business cranking because I’ve done all these things.

I’ve made all this money. I have all this big house. And guess what? Most guys from many times miserable. They’re just, they’re, they’re just are hard, they’re miserable, they’re scared, they’re alone, they’re frustrated. And then look, there’s just, we just need to know. All we have to do is turn to him. All we have to do is turn to him because he’s there and he is re, he is waiting.

And if we turn to him, there’s no condemnation whatsoever. There’s pure love. Just pure love from the. Right. If you keep reading this story, this parable here, what happens with the brother, the other brother, how he responds? It’s very interesting cause the other brother responded the way many of us probably would, right?

He responded. He was mad. He was, he was frustrated. He was POed. He was just done. So he couldn’t believe that his brother wasted the money. And you know what? Now, now father, you’re, you’re, you’re just opening the house and letting him back in and you’re killing our animals and just having a party. Or are you kidding me?

You’re having a barbecue when all he’s done is been out is partying, it blew his blows mind. Right? And this should, that should blow our mind that there’s nothing that we can. Nothing that separates us from the love of the Father in this parable. This is a beautiful picture of the gospel right here. This is it, right?

Because you, you know, you may feel like you’re a long ways off from him right now, and that, that God doesn’t love you and you know, you, you, you’ve done so much wrong. There’s no way God can receive me, and I’m gonna sit here tell you, you got it wrong. You got it wrong because you don’t have to go fix yourself to come to him.

That ain’t it. That ain’t. Because you hear guys talking about all the time, well, I just need to get these few things right, uh, right in my life. And then I’ll, then I’m going, I’ll go to the church or I’ll go to Jesus then. No, man, you just come as you are. You come as you are, and the father loves you and he is ready and just turn from your ways and lean on him.

It should be the most freeing thing you guys do. Give it to. It’s going take that pressure off of you, that pressure you feel like you to, to lead at work, the pressure to do great with your finances, to be the great husband, to be a great dad. Just take all that and just lay it at his feet and just ask him to guide and direct you.

And you know what? He will. Why? Because he loves you. He loves you. So guys, this parable right here, I, I’m telling you, it’s incredible. And what we’re gonna be talking about this. Is, how do we turn sons into men? I want you to think about that. How do you turn sons into men? Because, you know, in, in the culture we live in now, you know, there, there, there’s, when do you know when, when you, when your son is a man, think about your life.

Was there ever a moment where you know you are a man? I mean, for me, I know I had those little moments growing. And you know, some of them were bigger than others. You know, the first time you shoot a big gun or first time, I remember the first time I drove my dad’s truck. You know, those types of moments where I felt like I was man, you know, and, but in some cultures grow in, in past and still today, in, in different cultures, there are procedures, rights of passages.

They’re rituals that boys have to overcome or, or succeed in to be called a. And we, quite frankly, we don’t have that anymore in America. And that’s probably why in many ways, why we have what we have right now. You know the guys that don’t know how to be men. I know you’re listening to the line within us because you are, you’re leaning in.

You wanna be a Christian leader, you wanna be a man, you wanna take the lead. Totally get that. But look around. Just look around. You’re the minority. So how do we turn our sons in a man? If you have a son right now? You don’t wanna listen to this, this week’s episode because we’re gonna talk about that a, a, a a program that this one man went through and how it impacted his life dramatically.

And again, this is not a fancy program, guys don’t feel like this is something you gotta spend thousands of dollars with. No, this is just basic one-on-one stuff that’s you can do right now. You can plan this out and lean in, start making these things happen. And so if you have a son or if you have kids in your life, maybe you’re an uncle or something like, This is a totally, totally applicable program that you’ll be able, or tactics that you’ll be able to, to apply and make a huge impact.

Guys, I’m telling you. So come on back. Make sure you check that out. Now, if you’re new to the line within us far as spiritual kickoff, what we do every week, I wanna make sure you understand what this guy that we’re talking about, Jesus , okay? Because right here in Luke 15 that we just read, these are the red letters.

These are the words from our Savior of Jesus Christ. And if you never surrendered your life, if you never have. You needed to really think about this. You need to understand, cause you may not understand what we’re talking about, sir. You know, who is this Jesus guy? We talking about surrender. But basically, you know, we, we, we need to understand a few basic things.

And the very first thing is this. We are all sinners. Every one of us, every one of us are sin. And every one of us falls shorter to glory. God. And the Bible is very clear on that. And there’s nothing that can sep that can, can close that gap between our sin and God’s holiness. There’s nothing we can. You can’t work your way in.

You can’t be a nice guy your way into heaven, right? So what did God do? Well, he sent down his son and his son was the payment for our sins. Is it called the propitiation? That’s the payment that satisfies. So Jesus, he came, he was born of a virgin. He had taught he, when he lived, he taught us these things.

Then he died on the cross. Three days later, after he is was dead, he was dead. Guys completely dead. He rose, he overcame. And that is the payment. He was the perfect lamb. There’s no more sacrifices needed because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. I mean, he never sined ever, and you just have to understand that.

And then he ascended to the Father. So he sent right now, next on the right hand or Father, and no one gets to Him. To Him, except through Jesus Christ. I mean, this is, it’s so powerful. It’s so gripping. Yeah. It’s so simple. So when, and admit that you’re a sinner and he gotta believe that Jesus is the son of God and then you have to confess him as Lord.

And once you confess Him as Lord, and I’m talking about Lord over everything. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna go ahead. I’m gonna start meddling here. I’m talking about Lord, over your finances. That’s right, Lord, over your bedroom. That’s right. Lord, over your, your, your, your house and your family, all of. Every piece of it.

He has to be Lord. He has to direct you and what he’s gonna do, once you confess Him as Lord, the Holy Spirit’s gonna come. It’s gonna give you that new heart. The scale’s gonna fall off. You’re gonna be able to see everything in a different light now. And the Holy Spirit, what we call the lion within, it’s going guide and direct you and it’s gonna convict you and compel you and push, pull you in different directions and make you wanna do things differently and make you want to, to to share the love of God with others.

And it is a powerful, powerful thing. When a man surrenders his life to Christ and leans in to do God’s work. So if you’ve just done this, if you just accepted Christ, you need to do me one favor, just email me. Support at the lion within us comes right to my phone. Guys that support at the Lion within us, email me.

I want to basically send you some information that’s going to help you be prepared for the battle that you just entered into as you just entered into it. I, I always say that to the end cuz I don’t want you to know that part. Not just kidding, but it’s seriously, you’re in a battle now. We’re in a battle against the evil one, but guess what?

We have weapon. We have a weapon and we have defense and we, I’m gonna be able to share all that information with you to help you be ready cuz you’re on fire. The most, the, the most effective Christians that are out there willing to share the word, share the good news, usually all the brand new ones. Why?

Cause you’re amped up, you’re excited, you’re ready to go, say let’s go get this right. So this is what it’s all about. So just email us at support at the line with us for that. So guys, I pray you come back on Wednesday for our big episode here where we’re gonna be talking about how you can. Ultimate transition from turning from.

From Boys to Men. Right? Boys to men. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s gonna be awesome. So check out the line within us. Hey guys, give us a, a rating and review. If you haven’t done that yet, come on man. Hook us up with a rating and review that would really help. Go to the line within.us. Join our community.

Guys, we have tons of guys in there. We meet on a regular basis. This is where you can connect with me on a daily basis. Uh, we’re constantly talking, engaging, supporting, serving. We have monthly challenges going on. We have courses going on. We have bible studies, we have lion lunches. Guys, the list goes on and on and you can’t get any of it unless you’re in the community.

And I, I believe in it so much that I put my money where my mouth is, and I just give everybody a 30 day free trial. Just check it. Check it out for 30 days. You know what, if you say, you know what, this sucks, then bounce out, it’s fine. But check it out and see, come to an event we have Ask me anything events every month.

Well, we bring in a guest from the show and he, and they usually just lean in and Buddy you talking about firing squad. You can ask him anything. And these are experts that you’ve listened to on the line within us. They’re ready. They’re ready to. To help you. So guys, I know you hear you’re listening, that you’re hearing this podcast that you’re, that you’re following along and I can’t thank you enough.

Cause we look at the stats and it just blows us away. And I, and we give God all the glory. And I just thank you so many guys are, you’re sharing the podcasts out. That’s the biggest way for it grows and you’re spending time with us. Uh, and, and just thank you for that first and foremost. But come check out the.

That’s where it’s at, guys. Come check out the community. So it’s the line within us for that. If you need some one-on-one help, we do coaching as well. Maybe you need some help with your finances. Maybe you need some help with just understanding what is it like to be a Christian man? How can I actually effectively lead my family?

Hey, we have coaching for that. We can really help you one a one-on-one basis with that as. Okay. So guys, the line within us, connect with us there. Let’s have a conversation. Let’s jump on a phone call and let’s just see how we can serve and how I can help you be the leader that God intends you to be. So guys, looking forward to seeing you back here on, on for our next episode.

Have a great week. Get this scripture down. If you haven’t read the whole ProGo, uh, of the, the parable of the Prodigal son. It starts at verse 11 and it goes to, 32. So just in, in chapter 15 of Luke. So if you wanna read the whole thing that’s there, but that one little verse right there, verse 20. Just remember the father is always waiting.

All right guys, get after it. Come back. We’re looking forward to seeing on our next episode. And remember to unleash the lion within.

What if you could connect with other Christian men, grow in your. Have resources to help you be the leader God intends you to be. Have live events where you can ask questions and get in the moment answers and be connected to guys 24 7 when you need ’em the most. Does it sound too good to be true? What’s not?

That is what we’ve built within the lion within this community. I’m telling you guys, this is an unbelievable opportu. Jump in, check us out. We have weekly events that are happening all the time. We have lion lunches. We have our Bible study. We have boot camps that are happening. We have, uh, ask me anything events every month where you get a chance to ask questions directly from guests.

From the show. Guys, it’s access that you cannot get anywhere else. This community is growing. It’s getting bigger and bigger, and it’s being, it’s growing closer together as it grows as. It’s amazing to see how these guys lean in, support, serve, love, encourage, challenge each other on a daily basis. So guys, if you want a chance just to check it out, hop over to the lion within us, get a 30 day free trial.

Just see what it’s like and you may find what you’ve been looking for. That encouragement, that support, that brotherhood is right here at the click of your finger. I’ll see. Inside the den.