Welcome to the Line 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. All right guys. It is your spiritual kickoff of the week. I’m excited to have you here. So let’s dig into God’s word together. So we’re gonna be in the book of First John.

Okay? So that’s first John. We’re gonna be chapter four. We’re looking at two verses this week, verses seven and eight. So the first John four, seven, and eight starts off like this, beloved. Let us love one another. For love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God because God is love.

Man, that’s a beautiful verse right there. So let’s unpack it. Let’s see what we can learn from this. Let’s see how we can actually simplify and apply this to our life guys. Because that is what it’s all about the line within us. We’re all about helping you guys simplify and apply God’s word and walk it out.

Okay? First thing we need to know, gotta know this. Where is first John? I get it. Okay. So you need to go towards the end of your Bible. Okay? So you gonna go past your, your, your, your, your, Matthew, mark, Luke and John there in your, in your, the New Testament. But keep on going and you’ll go past, you know, Paul’s letters and then get past Hebrews.

Then you’ll go past James, then you got first and second Peter, and then you get to First John. Okay, now you get to Second John. Guess what? You went too far. Just back up on. But you gonna get to first John. Just keep flipping. You’ll get there. It’s towards the back, I promise you. Now this is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John.

Okay? And in fact, he wrote five books in total guys. So he wrote John, first, second, and third John and And what’s the fifth one? Revelation. That’s right. Revelation. So, so he wrote those five and it was important just to know that again, this is the, the he, he refers to himself and John as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

So we know that John was very close, very close with the Lord, with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So we know he was there. So this is very important just to hear these words and let them soak in. Okay, so we’re only looking at two short verses. Look how many times the word love is used. Let’s used five times in this translation.

Five times. That’s pretty impactful. In fact, the entire section here is focused on that, on the ground of brotherly love, okay? And, and digging into it. So we’re gonna look into see what does that love actually mean, right from the Greek standpoint. So after. Doing some research. The love that he’s speaking about here is actually around the Agapi love, which is the fatherly love of God for humans as well as the human reciprocal love for God.

Okay, so the, the, this what we’re talking about here, this, this transcendent Agapi love is the highest form of love, okay? And you can contrast this cuz there’s several different types of love we read about, particularly in the Bible. But you have the HEROs for the erotic love. Like that’s what you would have.

With your spouse, right? That, that love, that, that personal connection with, with, with her. And then you have the Phil or the Brotherly Love. Just think about, for me, I always think about Philadelphia. Okay? The city of what? Brotherly love. Okay? But right here we’re talking about the agape love. Okay? So the highest form of love is, is, is where we’re at.

And we’re gonna see how John starts connecting the readers by calling them Beloved, right at the gate, his very first word. Beloved, what does that mean? Just to be loved. Be loved. And from a leadership standpoint, guys, we need to think about this. Okay? If we wanna establish any type of connection with others, it’s as we need to, as early as possible, connect with them, with the mindset of how can we love them?

How can we actually show love to them, okay? And that, that relationship is so important. And look what, what Jesus talked about in, in Matthew 22, he gave us two big commandments. We’re supposed to love God, we’re gonna love others. It’s very simple, very simple what he told us to do, and I think for most of us, that loving God part, it comes more natural.

Let’s just be real for guys. I think it comes more natural. Think about it for a minute. Let’s say you’re a dude that likes to go out and just go for walks in the in the woods. Maybe you like to do that early in the mornings. You just wanna go for walks. So you wanna, you want a trail run or you just want to go be in nature and just be connected with God or, or maybe you’re the type of guy.

Who likes to watch the sunrise or the sunset, conversely, right? Or maybe you just want to go to the beach and just watch those waves crash over and over. They crash. They fuck ’em up. They go back out. They crash. They go back out. You know what, in those moments, you’re in the woods, you’re, you’re at the beach.

You’re feeling that sunshine on your face and just feeling that warmth. It’s pretty easy for me, in particular, in those moments, to feel the love of the father. You can really feel, you can, you can feel just the love he has for you, and you just go for me. If, if I wanna see how great and, and, and powerful God is, just go walking.

Just go outside and just go for a walk Now, okay? The, the, the, the trick is here. Okay? He tells us not just that, but we have another part. And that second part is, look, we’re not supposed to just love God. We’re supposed to love others. And this is, this is where we, we, we kind of run into problems in the guys, right?

We struggle with that love other part because just think about it. Maybe you’re driving right now and maybe today someone has cut you off in traffic. Well, it’s kinda hard to love them, right? Or maybe you, you, you got, uh, you, you’ve been working at, uh, on a project at work and before you know it, somebody is jump in and they’re trying to take that credit for the work that you’ve done.

Or maybe you had that bully growing up and they were always looking for ways to start tearing you down. To really start just being mean or just speak those ne those words of negativity to you. That’s it. That’s real. It happens all the time. So how you supposed to love those people? You know? And God, you really don’t want me to love those people, do you?

There’s no way I’m supposed to do that. Have you seen what those people are doing out of there? I can’t be required to love them. Come on God. And you know what, guys doing this 100% on your own, you are 100% right. You can’t do it. You’ll never be able to love them. However, when we surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, something happens.

Something happens to that old hearted in us, guys, I’m telling you, it, it, it, it changes. And when that start changes, you’re gonna start automatically through that time, through that process of sanctification, you’re gonna start loving others. And that love’s gonna start coming out. Cuz guess what The first fruit of spirit is?

Go back to the fruit of spirit. We know what the very first one is. Love. You got love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith from us. General self-control. But the very first one, love. Right. So to get to this verse to what John is telling us here, we need to look at, uh, really what, what comes after this verse.

John’s reminding us right here that God sent his only begotten son to our world to give us life through him. And to do that, Jesus had to come. He had to come to be that propitiation for our sins. That’s a very fancy word, and all that means is the payment that satisfies Guys, that is it. There is nothing that you or I can do to cover the gap that was created when sent the world.

It’s nothing. So God covered it for us by his ultimate demonstration of love. And guys, this should give us comfort. This should make us really, really feel good and, and just to be known that we are born again, uh, of through, through, through God and through the actions that he did for us, for us. So, I mean, when the next time that guy cuts you off, or next time you’re at the gym and you know, you go over to that, to that rack and that guy who’s been in there and he’s put all those plates on on it, he just does his set and leaves and he doesn’t take the plates off, instead of just mumbling under your breath, Hey, do you have to go up to him and say, I love you?

No, that’d just be weird. But you could, you could do this instead. Hey, you could just say, you know what, I’m gonna pray for this person right now, and I’m just gonna pray a, a prayer blessing over them. You know what? That person just cut me off. Maybe they’re having a terrible day. I guarantee they didn’t mean to cut you off.

Maybe they just had a bad day, or maybe they did mean to cut you off, and they’re just a jerk. If you just need to pray to God softens their heart, whatever it is, instead of cussing, do a blessing. Okay? Take those actions by speaking love to others instead of anger, instead of rage, instead of wrath. Okay.

This is how we can free ourselves from that bondage of, of, of, of, of sin that’s gonna hold so many of us back. Okay? And too many guys, and I know this, I’m speaking to myself here too. We walk around mad all the time. We’re frustrated. We, we blow up. And that’s just not the way to act guys, right? That is not from God.

Those, those feelings, where do those feelings come from? Those feelings come from the evil one. And guess what? He’s gonna do everything he can to keep you from doing the work you’ve been called to do. I’m telling you he’s going to do it. He’s gonna find little ways to throw your day off, to make you forget about all the blessings god’s given you.

And remember that one negative. So just think about it. If you’ve ever been in sales, I wa I, I lived a life in sales at one time. Business business development never fails. I had customers, we did, we, we did, uh, services on electric motors, and I would have customers, We would literally repair hundreds of motors for them a year.

Okay. Now, when did they ever wanna talk to me? A couple times when they needed something picked up. Okay. Or, or, or delivered. There was always the logistics side of it, but the only time I really ever got called into true quote unquote meetings was when something didn’t go right. Right. We don’t worry about all the, the things we’ve done right.

We only get focused on the things that when something goes wrong, it’s the same thing right here. And guys, we can’t have that as Christian men. We gotta focus on, on, on all areas. And I get not everything’s going to go right, but there’s a lot of times throughout the day where you can show positivity, you can start speaking those positive words, affirmations to others, versus showing that wrath.

And I’m telling you guys, if you actually should just lean into this and start doing this at home with your wife, with your kids. You’re going to have a tremendous impact. You’re going to change the dynamic, the temperature. Everything about your home is gonna immediately change cause you as the leader of your family, are being intentional about showing love.

And guys, that’s what it’s about. You need to hold your head high. Thank him for the love that he shows us. Okay? And then take that and let others see that in you guys. If you wanna unleash the line within, you hear me talking about about that all the time. This is how you do it. You show the love. So the question for you, what does love look like in your daily walk, not in somebody else’s.

What does it look like in your daily walk? Guys, remember, this is a, this is a verb. This is not some feeling. This is a verb. So you need to start walking this stuff out and showing that love to others and being the hands of defeated Christ. And remember that our father loves us. It’s so beautiful guys.

Now, if you’ve never put your, your trust in the lordship of Jesus Christ and you, and you’re hanging with us on a line within us and you like the stuff we talk about, and you, and you think that there’s things that you can apply from, from, from the Bible to your life to just be a better person, but you don’t really know about this Jesus stuff, I’m here to tell you you’re missing it.

You’re missing it. Cuz if Jesus is just your rabbi, is he? If he is just your teacher and he is not your Lord buddy, that’s a terrible place to be. It has a terrible place to be. Cuz one day we’re gonna stand in front in heaven. We’re gonna have to give an account and either he’s gonna say welcome or he is gonna say, I never knew you.

And guys that scares me. Cause I think there’s many people, there’s many people in our churches, there have been people who walk through the waters of baptism who Jesus is gonna say, I never knew you. You need to make sure you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And it starts with admitting that you’re a sinner.

You know, you’re not a mistake or in need of a life coach. You’re not a cupcake. You’re not a snowflake. You’re not a skittle. Your kindergarten, kindergarten teacher was wrong. You need that savior. You need to understand that I am a sinner and I need a savior. You cannot nice your way into this, guys. I wish you could, but you can’t.

Can’t work your way in. There’s only one way. There’s only one way. He makes it so simple. Yet we make it so complex. And you have to believe that Jesus, Jesus is the son of God. And somehow, somehow when he came, he paid that penalty on that cross for us, for our sin, that that payment counted for you, not not for everyone else, for you.

You need to make this personal, Jesus won’t say personal relationship with you. You need to believe that he is the son of God. And yes, on that third day, he just rented that to him for three days, y’all, because on that third day, he rose, he overcame death. And right now, right now, he sit at it right hand on the Father.

And he is the only way. He’s the way and the truth to life guys, that there’s no other way except through him. That is it. So once she believed that you gotta do one thing, you gotta confess him. You gotta confess in as Lord again, not teacher Lord, confess in as Lord of your life. And once you do that, the Holy Spirit’s gonna come.

It’s going to end well. It’s gonna give you that new heart. We like to call it the lion within. You gonna have that Holy Spirit and it’s guiding and directing you. So guys, just take, just say the prayer. Pray. Say the prayer. Salvation. Let’s say it right now. Father, I just, I know there’s, there’s men listening right now who want to accept you right now as their Lord.

And I just pray, Lord, that you open their hearts. You just let them just lean to, to, to this emotion that they’re feeling, to understand that this is the Holy Spirit tugging at their heart, and today is the day of salvation for them. Now, I pray, Lord, that you just pour out your anointing on them, that they feel the Holy Spirit in this moment, and they accept you.

As our Lord and Savior, we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. So guys, if you just pray, prayed that prayer with me for the very first time. Welcome to the brotherhood You are. You are in. You now have the line within right now. I want you to send me an email so I can send you some free resources just to help you cuz you’re gonna be in a battle and you need to be ready.

So support at the line within us that support at the line within us. Send me an email. Just say, just got saved or something like that in your, in your subject line. And I’m just gonna send you some free things to get you going, to help you get ready for the battle that you are now entered. Okay. Guys, I’m telling you, you better get ready and you’re gonna need some Christian men to walk along beside you.

Okay? So get after it. So, so, so happy to have you here in the brotherhood, for sure. Come, go check out our resources at the line within us guys. Again, community connection. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what we do with the line within us. So go check that out. We have lots of resources we’re building each and every week to serve Christian men, to help them be the leaders God intends them to be.

This is not just a tagline, we actually walked this stuff out. So if you’ve been on the fence, get off of it. Actually take some action, send an email to support at the line within us if you’re on the fence and I’ll personally jump on a Zoom call. I’ll show you what the community’s all about. I’ll give you that inside look and then I’ll even give you a 30 day free try to let you try it out cuz I believe that much.

Behind the community and what we are building, and I’m seeing it week in, week out, these guys that there, they’re showing up, they’re being vulnerable, they’re being real, they’re improving their, their relationships with their wives. They’re improving their relationships with their kids, with their coworkers, with their businesses.

They’re making, they’re being better financial, financial stewards, guys, I’m telling you, they’re being stronger physically. We have some physical challenges that are pushing them, but you only get that inside the community. So jump off the fence. Jump inside. Let’s get inside if we can serve you. So guys come back.

I was like, guarantee you on Wednesday, you are not gonna want to miss this conversation on Wednesday. It is powerful. The, the guests blew me away, brought so much wisdom and insight again, it’s just another one of those opportunities at the line within us that I just cannot believe we’re able to, to connect with some of these wonderful men who are able to give us real truth that we can apply to our lives.

So come on back on Wednesday and enjoy it. Don’t forget that first John four, seven through eight, there will be a quiz. I’m just kidding. There’s no quiz. But seriously, study these verses. Get ’em, un underline ’em in your Bible, highlight ’em, whatever you need to do. And then put ’em from, get ’em in your head and then take it from your head.

Move ’em to your heart. If you move it to your heart, that’s gonna make the big impact. So we’ll see you back next time. Guys. Come back. Look forward to that conversation on Wednesday. Now you know what’s coming next. Get out there and unleash the lion within.

Every man needs to have a bunch of itters writtens in their life. When the attacks come, you better be ready. To help you get started, I want to give you a free guide to get 10 scriptures that will have you ready to fight like a lion. Along with the guide, there are series of messages designed to come alongside you during your mission of committing these verses.

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