Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hunger to be the leaders God intend you to be. I’m your host, Chris Granger. Let’s jump in. Alright guys, it’s your spiritual kickoff of the week. I hope you’re excited, and let’s just go ahead and dig into God’s word. Are you ready? I am.

All right, let’s go. So we’re gonna be in the book of Revelation, revelation chapter one. We’ll look at two verses this week, verses 17 and 18. So 17 and 18 of Revelation. It says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one.

I died. And behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. So God’s powerful verses right here. Unbelievable. We’re going to look at this. We’re gonna see how we can simplify, apply this to our life for. So the first thing we need to know, you guys know where I’m gonna go with this?

Where’s Revelation? Well, this may be the, one of the easier ones to find out outside of Genesis. Okay. So it is the last book of the Bible. Now if you get to the book of Maps, you went too far. So that’s, that’s just a little joke. But there’s no book of maps, but usually there’s maps at the back of your Bible.

But, so if you get there, you went too far back up a little bit. You’ll be right there. Revelation. Okay, now little trivia. Who wrote Revelation? D D. D. D. Dinging. Alright. The Apostle John. There you go. So what else did he. Well, he wrote John, that’s one of the gospels. Remember Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. And he also wrote first, second, and third John.

So in total, he wrote five books of, of the New Testament. That’s a, that’s a lot. Okay. Now, John, he wrote this while he was on the island of Patmos, when he was, when he was exiled. So he was there, uh, under, under, uh, guard. This is where he wrote it. Now he had the vision and the sign. That everything was revealed to him from the Holy Spirit, from Jesus himself.

And this is towards the beginning again. We’re only in Revelation one. So this is towards the beginning of Revelation one. Okay, so now think about for a second when you read these verses, how Deep John roll with Jesus. Just let’s think about it. He was there on the roads, he was camping with Jesus. He was beside the Messiah during all of his ministry.

John was there. You know we had, you always had the 12. Then he had like, like the, the bottom three, right? You know, Peter, James, and John. They were, they were like the, to the, the tight knit group with Jesus. But John always had that special relationship with, with Christ. I mean, he even called himself the one who Jesus loved.

Right? So we know John had a very close relationship with our Lord and Savior, and he saw, think about what he saw so many miracles. He saw the transfiguration. Just put your, try to wrap your head around that for a minute. How the healing of Jerry’s daughter, he was. He was there and he was even there in the garden at Yosemite.

Okay. And when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he is the one that Christ looked at and said to take care of his mother. So knowing all that, right, so you feel like John’s got this really deep, super personal relationship with Christ? Much more than any of us. Probably, probably could because I mean, let’s, quite frankly, he rolled with Jesus deeper than anyone.

What did he do when he saw. There risen savior right here and, and in this moment, he dropped at his feet as though dead. Okay, that’s it. Being in the presence of the holy divine Christ was just too much for him to handle. And guess what? God, it’s gonna be too much for handle for us too. So I hear these people talking all the time.

You know, when I get to heaven, I’m gonna ask Jesus this. I’m gonna ask Jesus this. I’m like, yo, bro, you ain’t gonna ask nothing. All you gonna do is drop and. That’s it. He’s gonna drop in worship because we will begin to end the presence of our holy one, of the Messiah of God himself. I mean, you can’t wrap your head around this, so I’m not even gonna try to explain it, but I just know one thing, I can read this right here.

When I see John, he dropped at the defeat. That was it. And guys being in the presence of, of Christ, it should be something we all strive for. We all strive for. So notice what he did. When he dropped at defeat of his savior. Notice what Jesus did. He reaches his right hand out. That’s what it says right here.

But I, but he laid his right hand on me. He laid it on him. Okay, so this is the same scarred hand, the same scar, one that g that John saw ascend, or at the at, at the very end of the gospel, he saw a sin in the heaven. Now that same hand was touching John and his greatest moment of fear. Thank you about that for a second.

And Jesus’ first words to John right here should be so encouraging to us guys. I’m telling you. What does he say? Fear not. Fear not. Hey John, don’t be afraid. I, you know, I, I’m, I’m right here. I got you. I’m your father and man, we just need to remember that guys, cuz that that comfort he has and for John in that moment of fear, he has it for us.

Right. That is the, he is the great comforter, and I get that this is a whole lot easier said and done. I totally get it, man. The world is crazy. You got sickness everywhere. You have cancer, you have hate all over the news. Our children are under attack. It’s nonstop. And yet, yet, right here, he tells us to do not be afraid.

Okay? And I’m telling you, one thing I can just re for me, when I read this and started thinking about it and praying, how can, how can I share something like this with you guys? I just thought about John in that moment, you could almost feel the sigh of relief that he had, that he exhaled when Jesus said those words.

Can you feel it? Cause Cause in that one moment, Jesus took him from fear to comfort, from fear to comfort. And guess what? He can do that for us too. Even, uh, uh, when we are, have our backs against the wall, he can take us from fear to comfort right there. And look with John right here with. Where was he?

Where was he when this, when this happened? He was at defeat. He was at defeat. Have you ever been there when you realize you ain’t got this no more? Okay. When, when, when, when, when. The things of this world just don’t bring any satisfaction. Right. And they, they let us down. You know, you don’t, people look for pills, they look for sex, they look for drugs.

They look for money. They look for stuff, right? And all that stuff leaves us empty. And at some. We must fall down a defeat of Jesus like John does, right? We have to surrender to the Lordship guys cuz it’s so important. Cause look what Jesus says right after this. I am the first and the last and the living one.

I die. Behold I live, I alive and I forevermore and I have the keys to death of death and Hades. So Jesus always been, remember the I am statements guys. He’s always been, he acknowledges his. And if it ended there, like if Jesus died and bunk, there wasn’t anymore. No more gospels, no nothing like that. No Holy Spirit, then it’s just, he would’ve just been a good guy.

It really did some cool stuff. But it doesn’t end there, does it? It doesn’t. Cause the tomb is empty and we know cause of the tomb is empty. We have a living, a risen savior, guys. And we have this right here. We have this right here. Do not forget this. Okay? And. Need to understand a couple things too. We have hope.

We can’t have hope in this world. The things of this world, we have to have hope in him. Cause it tells us right here that he is alive. Forevermore. Forevermore. He’s got the keys to death and Hades. And let’s face it, no one wants to think about death, guys. And I totally get it. I only think about it either.

But I can tell you one thing, the mortality rate, the last time I checked, it’s somewhere hovering around a hundred percent. Okay? So what ultimately that means is that this matters, guys. This matters a. And when you think about the concept of time, it’s so, so brief. So just draw on a, on a, next time you’re at a dry erase board or chalkboard or something like, or just a piece of paper, just draw a horizontal line just across the pa a paper.

Put an arrow on one end of it and it drop right there and put a dot on that line. That line represents time, it never ends, right? And that little.is what we have for our little bit of time. We get him this beautiful thing called life. Now our son is one of our Sunday co-teachers, and his name is Todd. He, he, he, he drew this out the other day and just impacted me the way he did.

He’s, he has a gift of teaching. I absolutely love him when he teaches. And it really stood out to me that the brevity of time, and it matters so much. So when you start thinking about this concept of time, your life and my life, our kids’ life, uh, our grandparents, whatever that’s j, that’s still just a God on that.

So think about the forevermore part of the scripture. This is super important fellas. This is super, super important, okay? Because we’re talking about eternity and as blood ball children of the king, we can put our trust in him as our savior cuz he’s given us that gift of e eternal life as well. He’s given it to us.

I tell you one thing, you should be thankful that the tomb is empty. I know I am. I’m thankful that he wasn’t in that tomb. I’m thankful that he’s, he sits at the right hand, father, and I’m thankful he’s coming back and guys, that should really get us fired up and to not just get us fired up, but just be excited for us.

It should drive us to do, serve others. They should drive everything we do. It really should. And we, and we, we know that we, we put our trust in Christ. Anything is. It’s not in us, it’s in him. Put your hope there. You have to put your hope there. You can’t, it cannot be guys. I’m telling you, you cannot put your hope in your circumstances cuz circumstances change the world is, is there’s just a lot of things that can go wrong.

I get it. Maybe you’re riding a really high, high right now. I’ll just tell you to be careful. Cause you, you guys heard me say this before. You’re either in a trial, coming out on one, or you’re getting ready to go into one. That’s just the facts of lice fellas. That’s the facts of life. So understand in these moments, in these trials, you only have one thing to clinging to.

And if you’re on that mountain, you better praise him forward. When you’re in that valley, you don’t have nowhere to go look up to him. He’s there at all times. There has never been a moment, a single second of your life, but Christ isn’t there. So you need to put your hope in the risen. Guys, I, when I read scripture like this, I get so fired up.

I get so excited because I know the tomb is empty now because the tomb is empty. The question I’ve got for you, do you believe that anything is possible? That anything is possible, not through you, but through him? And I pray you do guys, I really pray you do. So take this, this, these words from Revelation and.

Understand. You know what, yes. Jesus. He, he is with us. We, we, we, I think we sometimes, we forget so much about the divinity of him cuz he walked with us, right? And we can associate with him. And he did that on purpose. But don’t forget the reverence. Don’t forget the reverence of our savior. My, my buddy Mitch, who’s part of our community, he brought this up the whole day and it just keeps sticking with me.

It keeps coming up the reverence of our Lord, right? Yes. He loves us. He’s our friend. Yeah. I get all that. But ultimately he is Lord. And do not forget that Don needs need to know he’s the first and the last living one. He died and behold, I, he is alive. We worship a living savior. Gosh, guys, I, I don’t know how much imp more important that can be and we have to get that through.

He has the keys and I just know one thing, I’m, I wanna be on team Jesus. So my prayer for you, for you guys, when you get to heaven, well done, good and faithful servant. Let’s, let’s rock and roll. Let’s keep working, let’s keep worshiping. Let’s keep doing whatever he’s calling us to do. Now, if you don’t know Jesus, you don’t have a relationship with him, maybe you just read the Bible and maybe every now and then you pick up something or somebody sh shared this podcast to you and you’ve never actually put your trust in him.

Maybe you grew up like I did and you just, you know, you know about Jesus. Cause you, you grew up in the United States and it’s hard to go anywhere. But we don’t know about ’em to some degree. We know people go to church on Sundays and things like that and know should try to be a better person. I know I need to do all these things to just be a better person.

Right? That’s not what it’s about. You can’t nice your way in. Guys. I’m gonna tell you right now, hell’s full of, of nice guys. It just is. And hell’s gonna be full too, of people who thought walk through the waters of baptism because just going through the waters doesn’t mean anything. You have to surrender through the Lordship.

Yes. Once you do that, then go, then go walk through the waters of baptism. But just the water itself. No. Jesus wants your heart. So you sitting there, okay, Chris, I get it. So maybe I need to start, you know, uh, pain, a little bit more attention here. What, what do I do? Well, first thing you have to just admit at the gate, it’s your center.

Just. I’m a sinner in need of a savior, right? Again, your eyes heard me says to you, you’re not, you’re not a, a mistake or in evil life, coach. Nope. I get it. I even do some coaching, but I can’t coach anyone into heaven. You are a sinner and need of a savior. Maybe just look in the mirror right there and right now and say that to yourself.

Then you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. He is it. He is the son of God and putting all your trust that Jesus is the son of God. And he came down and he and he, uh, took on flesh. He bore the penalty for our sins right there on that cross. And when he was on that cross, he was thinking about you.

He was thinking about me, and when he, and then they laid him in a tomb. He, it was rented for three days. He overcame death right there, right then and there. He overcame it. He paid the penalty, the propitiation for our sins. It’s a payment that satisfies, and you gotta believe that somehow, somehow, when Jesus did that on the cross, it countered for you.

Then you have to confess in his Lord, and I mean Lord, not teacher Lord, over your life. So if you’ve done that and you’re ready to do that right now, let’s say a prayer Father in heaven, thank you so much for salvation. We didn’t. We cannot earn it, but we are so grateful, Lord, for what Jesus did for us. And Lord, we are just praying right now.

We accept you as our savior, uh, over our life and we just, we, we ask for the Holy Spirit to come God and direct us and open our eyes so that we can do the work that you’ve called us to do. God. And we know we can be successful because of you, God, not for anything we have done, but strictly because of you.

So, Lord, I pray for the man or the women that may be listening right now who just accepted you as their. Lord, I just pray. Just that you give them that strength, give that encouragement, give them that hope that we know only comes from that relationship with you, father. And we says, we thank you so much.

We love you. We praise you, we pray all this according your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen and amen. So if you just accepted Christ as your Savior, right there with me, I want you to do me a favor. See me an email. Support at the line within us. And here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna send you a couple resources.

I’m just, I just wanna give you, first of all, I’m gonna give you a virtual high five and a hub because you are in the Kingdom baby. Now it’s time to get to work. I wanna send you some resources for free to help you out, to get started, cuz you are gonna be under attack, I’m telling you. But you’re also in a really good place because the Christians who, who, who, when you first get saved, you get, you kind of have that new Christian fire and you gonna want to go tell other people about it.

So this is good. This is good. Don’t, don’t lose. Send me, send me that email. I’m gonna send you some resources to help you have these conversations, guys. That’s what it’s about. So support at the line within us. Man, I just love sharing the gospel on these spiritual kickoffs. I hope you guys enjoy it each and every week.

And for you guys that are saved, Kenny, you just can’t get enough. Jesus, I hope I’m getting humor. Some amens out there whenever you’re listening to this. Okay, so now I, here’s a couple things to to know about. Come back on Wednesday. I’m just gonna tell you one thing. You’re not gonna want to. It’s one of my favorite guests of all time.

He’s coming back on the show and guys, I’m super excited about it. I think you got are just gonna be blown away by the conversation. I’m so just honored and blessed to be able to serve him and to get this information out there to you guys. So come back on Wednesday. Also, if you like the spiritual kickoffs, and I know you guys do, we see it.

Go join the community. We do a spiritual kickoff every day of the week, Monday through Friday. In the mornings I go live, we read scripture, we have a spiritual kickoff. We have guys on there, and we’re just digging through the Bible. We can get you started every day, every day of the week. We can get you started with God’s word.

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We’re planning some live events. You’re only gonna get that’s exclusive to commu, to the lions. Within US community members. So guys, go check it out. Start your 30 day free trial. We got guys in there that is growing tremendously. We’re serving ’em each and every day. We have challenges every month. Guys, I’m telling you, this is your opportunity to get plugged in around men that are gonna push you, but they’re also there to serve you.

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You’re gonna have a lot of fun prayerfully, guys. This served you well go, go, go get, uh, highlight this one in your book of Revelation and just think through how John wrote these words and how impactful it is for us to have that hope in Jesus Christ, our fellas. We’ll see you next time. It’s time to get out there and unleash the lion within.

What if you could connect with other Christian men, grow in your faith, 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 us c. 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.

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