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 guys. This’s your spiritual kickoff. I’m excited to have you here and let’s dig into the word today. Okay? And we’re gonna be in the book of John.

So John, chapter 16, looking at one verse. It’s actually the last verse of chapter 16. It’s verse 33. Okay? 33. It says these things I have spoken to you. So that in me, you may have peace in the world, you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. Get some of that fellas, man, I hope you’re feeling fired up on that one.

So why, why is this verse important? We’re gonna really unpack it. We’re gonna see how we can simplify and apply this to our life guys, there is a lot, a lot here in just, just one verse that I know is gonna resonate with so many of you guys. Okay? So first of all, where is John? I don’t wanna miss the obvious stuff guys.

Where is John? It’s, it is one of our four gospels. So go to your New Testament. So you’ll finish up your Old Testament, go to your New Testament. That starts with Matthew, and you have Mark, and you have Luke, and you have John. Okay, now John, just have to be one of my favorite books of the Bible. I love reading the book of John, so hopefully you guys will, will do that too.

It’s also one that you can just read over and over and over. Uh, you can’t. Really spent enough time in the Book of John. It’s just, it’s such a, an encouraging book. And by the way, if you’re a new Christian or maybe you just, you, you’re early in your faith, this is a great place to start. So maybe you just shared the gospel with someone and they’re, they’re, they’re wanting to learn more and they don’t know where you don’t know where to point ’em to start.

I’ll always encourage the book of John as a great starting point. Okay, so we have all the, the, the, the, the big verses like the John three 16, obviously that’s a big one. Then you have the I Am statements and things like that. So there’s just so much in the Book of John, so I wanna make sure you know where it’s at here and here, and it’s important to, to use that and to constantly be in it as we grow.

So, right here, what’s going on? This is the final words of encouragement that Jesus has given his disciples here. Before he enters, he, he gives his priestly prayer, prayer in John 17. So everything he was doing that Jesus did honestly was for the disciples benefit to help them grow. And he was just went through, if you read back earlier and John talking about his, his return and what’s going, what’s gonna be happening?

Are they gonna be taking him away? But he would return. So basically he was. Pointing everything to the cross, everything he would be doing for them. Okay? And we have to remember that, that everything he did was for our benefit. It was for our benefit guys. And when it says right here, these things that I’ve spoken to you, these things was when he was going back through all the inf the, the information that he was sharing with them, he didn’t just do it in the blind.

No, he told them so they would know, so they would understand so that when they saw these things come to fruition that Oh, oh, okay. That’s when it all starts clicking. And sometimes guys, that’s why I relate to a lot of the disciples I gotta see to believe, right? Sometimes we gotta just see to believe, if you’ve heard that saying.

For them. They definitely were there and it clicked once they saw it, they believe, and that’s what Jesus is telling me here. Okay, so what, what is going on? The, the, they had tremendous pressure in this, in this time, right? Tremendous pressure. I mean, Jesus, think about this. Jesus knew what was gonna happen, right?

He was God, he was sovereign. Yet he still acted. He still followed through. He still want to to cross on our behalf. And he’s telling ’em right here, I’ve spoken these things to you, so you better not forget ’em. And then what he tells ’em, I think the, the, the, this jumps out to me more than anything. In me, you have peace, but in the world you have tribulations.

And guys, I don’t know about you. I just got back from my, uh, discipleship group. I’m actually recording this on a Saturday. And we talked about all the things in this world, all the, the tribulations, the different things that are out there. And guys, you don’t have to look very far to see that. It is crazy.

It is crazy what’s going on out out there. You know, this is not a political show, but you spent any time in the poli, in the political arena. It’s nuts, right? You look what’s going on in schools, it’s nuts. You look what’s going on, even in churches, it’s nuts. It’s crazy. What’s what we’re being pushed against.

And Jesus is telling him, look, you going to have peace. The only peace you’re gonna have is in him. But but in the world that tribulations is gonna come. It says you. You have tribulations. It does. It doesn’t say you may have. It says you have because we know it. And maybe you’re in a trial right now.

You’ve heard me say it before. You’re either in a trial, you’re coming out of one, or you’re going into one. Right? That’s the three stages of life. And that’s just the reality. And you know what? If you haven’t been in a trial before, raise the Lord. I’m just gonna tell you. Get ready. Cause Christ is clear.

Tribulations are going to come. And the closer you stand with the word of God and the more important that you make the word of God in your life, the more the trials are gonna come, the bigger they’re gonna be, the the tougher they’re going to get. I’m just telling you, this is just a reality. I, I fully believe that, you know, Satan’s gonna do everything he can to discourage you, to create that fear, to create that doubt, right?

To use the lust of the flesh, use the lust of the fly, the eyes, use the pride of life. All the tools, all the tools he’s going to use to derail you, to keep you from that life of victory, to keep you from walking with him. Right? That, and so he’s gonna do that. We, we, we, we don’t need to understand that. Uh, the trials may not come.

We have to understand that guys as Christian men, as leaders, they’re going to come. The question is how are you gonna respond when the trials hit? And that is where the rubber meets the road, fellas. And I’m telling you, this is where a lot of guys. This is where we, we, we start, you know, kind of wavering in our faith.

Cause the going gets tough and next thing you know, we wanna bootstrap it ourselves. We wanna fix it ourselves, we wanna pay for it ourselves. Just need to put in some more hours, whatever it may be, versus understanding, you know what, this is a trial. Best thing I need to do right now is turn to the Lord and see kids guidance.

I’m not saying don’t do anything, but seek his guidance. Understand that yes, this trial is a season right. This too shall pass for sure. But you gotta get through it. And when you try to get through it by yourself, and I’m speaking to myself here a lot, and you try to do it without God, man, it’s so tough.

Versus just give it to him and let him guide and direct you. Because what’s the last part of this verse saying? We’re only looking at one verse. Guys, this is not a, a long verse, but it is a powerful one. He says, take courage. Take courage. Guys, I know you wanna be courageous. I wanna be courageous. There’s moments, so I’m sure you are courageous.

And then there’s moments where you have, you have fear. You know why? Because you’re, you’re human. We had the fear, but God does not give us a spirit of fear, right? Gives us sp, a spirit of, of, of power, love, self-control. That’s what we have. We need to. So when that fear comes, we need to realize that is from the evil one.

Rebuke it, send it back to the gates of hell where it belongs, and release the power of love in, in your life through the power of Jesus Christ. That’s what we can do. Because he’s saying, just take courage. He doesn’t says, take, you know, think about taking courage. Don’t, or just, or consider courage. No, he says Take it.

So guys, take it. You need to understand that the, the, the courageous life, the the life of Vic, of Victory is when we stand with God and we stand on the word and we stand firm against the trials and that the trials are going to come, the storms are gonna come, the wind’s going to blow. I’m telling you it’s going to happen.

But we can stand firm when we have our feet firmly planted. The good news of the gospel. Keep reading. What’s the last part of this? First, the last what? How many words is this? 1, 2, 3, 5 words. I have overcome the world. Jesus lays it out right there. We are on the winning team. Fellas, why do we play? Like we’re not.

Why do we play? Like, we’re like, we’re on, on the losing team and it’s like we’re getting slaughtered. No, Jesus says it right here. I have overcome the world. You can have rest of confidence in that, you can rest in that. You can have peace in that that should drive everything that you do. That should be such a warm confidence in your spirit to get out and be obedient to what he’s called you to do.

Guys, and I’m just telling you from a spiritual kickoff standpoint, when you look, when you read verses like this, It should light you up. It should get you ready. It should. It should give you encouragement. Look, he’s telling us this stuff. We know where we’re gonna find this piece at. He’s also telling us you’re going to have to f go through some struggle.

All right? So if you’re being real with yourself, you know that times you grow the most is when you face the most persecution. Let’s just face it. I know the times in my life when I have had the most growth is when I’ve gone through the the hardest times, right? You had to earn it back when I was 330 pounds.

And I was looking at, okay, what am I gonna do to really get back in shape? Right? I had to push hard, right? I had to earn it. I had to go through some serious trials there just to get back on track, right through a divorce. I walked through right through losing our child. All these different areas of our life have have been tremendous trials.

And through that, though, through that, though, I can rest and have peace in my savior. And I know that the tribulations are gonna keep coming. They’re not gonna stop. In fact, they have actually increased since we started in line within us, cuz we’re doing work that God, that God wants us to do. But Satan does not want this to happen.

Satan does not want this podcast to be successful. Satan does not want our community to thrive. He’s gonna do all he can to discourage me, to discourage others, to keep you from clicking the button, to to join the community. All the things he’s gonna do. All the things he is cause we’re being obedient. But.

Satan and himself cannot stop God’s plan for your life. I’m telling you fellas have courage in that. Take courage. I have overcome the world. Jesus is saying this, put your hope and that trust and that, and let everything else fall where it falls. If you just are obedient to him and worry about. Be Listen to the to the Holy Spirit.

Let that guide your walk, guys. There’s nothing more freeing in this world than that. So take courage. Jesus has overcome the world. Guys. That’s how you unleash the line within right there. This is one of those scriptures, guys, one of those verses that I’m telling you small it’s it’s small in context, huge in application.

So have John 1633. Put that on a note card. Type in your phone, whatever you need to do, but have this as one of your, it is written, okay, it is written. And when you’re on that mountaintop, the question I want you to think about this week, who gets to credit? Who gets to credit when you’re victorious? Are you, are you taking it right?

I’ve said this the other day, I was thinking about this. We’re on the mountaintop. Think about it. What do we often do? We’re on, we’re on like an overlook in the mountains. We look across and we look down. Because we have that view, we have that view. We’re, we’re on top. Things are going great. So it’s fun to look down and see how everything looks.

We’re in a valley, where do you do you look up and what I’m trying to make sure that I have to remind myself, and I wanna remind you guys this. Jesus right here who says, I have overcome the world. He’s in the valley for sure. That’s when we cry out to him the most. Let’s just be real. But he’s on a mountaintop soon.

So next time you find yourself in the mountains, stop. You’re looking out across how beautiful it is. Look up. Maybe you’re in the mountains right now. Look up. Remember he’s with you here right now too. Okay? So things are cr, you’re crushing it in your job, your marriage, your kids, your health. Everything’s going great for you right now.

Wonderful. Give him the honor. Give him the glory. Give him the credit. Give him the praise. So who gets that credit? When you are victorious. All right, fellas. Now, if you’ve never put your trust in Jesus Christ as your savior, this is your lucky day. You listened to the lion within us for a reason. I don’t know why.

Maybe, maybe we popped up on your feed and you wanna see what this lion within this thing is all about. Well, guess what? The lion within is the Holy Spirit that lives within each and every one of us. The lion of Judah that ready to come out is ready to stand firm against the world. But there’s a but there, guys.

Sorry. You can’t get it unless you accept Jesus as your savior. And I mean truly as your savior. So if you’ve never done that before, I wanna just offer this up on our spiritual kickoffs. We do this each and every week. This is your opportunity to admit that you’re a sinner, you’re not a mistake or in need of a life coach.

Nope. You’re a sinner in need of a savior. And once you admit that you need to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he came down from heaven. And to, to be that atonement for us, right? And when he died on the cross and he pushed up on his nail pierce feet, he said to tell us that it is finished, that somehow it counter for you guys if you gotta believe that it countered for you.

Jesus was thinking about you on that cross. Then guess what? Three days later they laid him in a tomb, but he just rented that thing. He got up, he overcame death, and then he ascended back to the father. And it says right now he is the only way. There is no other way. You can’t just be a nice guy. You cha you can’t just, you know, go to pay charities and, and buy your way in.

You can’t do that. The only way is to fully surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And my prayer for you is right now that you are ready to make that decision. So if you’ve never accepted Christ as your savior, today is your day. So we’re gonna pray right now. You can do this as a, this is a heartfelt prayer, guys.

So only do this. If you’re ready to accept Jesus a savior, you admit the your sin. You believe he’s the son of God and you’re ready to confess him as the Lord and I teach her. But Lord, so if that’s you, let’s pray together. So Father, I just, I’m praying for the one man or the one woman who’s listening right now.

They’re ready to profess you as as their savior. God, I just pray you just. Be with them right now. Give them that peace that passes all understanding. Just let, uh, let, let them know how loved they are. And then I pray God, that you put people in their life that can help guide and direct them towards you.

That you open their eyes and you let them see the goodness that comes with a walking with you as our Lord Savior. I pray all this according to your will in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right. Now, if you just accepted Crisis You’re Savior, first of all, congratulations to the best decisions you ever made. Trust me, it’s a whole lot better than than the coffee decision or the dinner decision that you made today that you’re going to make.

So this was a huge decision. I want you to send me an email cause I got some free things I wanna send you that’s gonna help you just start your walk. You’re just getting started, so you’re kinda like a baby. Babies need help, right? They need food, they need formula. They need people to burp ’em, all that stuff.

I’m not gonna come burp you, but I will give you some food to help you grow, okay? Some spiritual food. So send me an email at support at the lion within us that’s support at the Lion within us. I’m gonna send you some free stuff. I’m gonna give you our Bible study. I’m gonna give you some really good resources to just help you start your journey.

Okay? So again, let me know. Send, send that email. Love to hear from you, and it’s all about just saving that one more person. That’s what, that’s what it’s all about, fellas. Alright. Now, if you enjoy the spiritual kickoffs, look, we do these every day, Monday through Friday in our community. They’re awesome.

The guys are there, they’re chiming in, they’re, they’re chatting, and we’re, we’re offering that up to you guys. So for the guys who are not ready to join the community, the full blown community, yet we have a brand new opportunity to, to join the lion within us. It’s called our daily spiritual kickoff space.

We’re offering that up for just $5 a month. Guys, this is a. Easy way to get in and support the line within us, first and foremost, but also to get that daily dose of scripture. Cause I know it’s hard, it’s hard to read the word sometimes, right? It’s hard to have that motivation. But what if you were reading the word with someone else each and every day you had that opportunity just to, to just to get fed and to grow, uh, your own spiritual walk.

But we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re kind of outlining it for you. That’s what the daily spiritual kickoffs all about. So again, if you can’t even make the live event, Don’t worry about it. We post ’em in the community. You can watch it whenever you wanna watch it, cuz I know we’ve got people all, all over right now.

Wearing different countries with the line within us is crazy. So guys, it’s not just for people in the us, it’s all over. If you are hearing my voice and you have interest and you want to grow your spiritual walk, the daily spiritual kickoff is a great way to get started. Now, the best way, obviously is to join the community.

Because then you can come to our events. You can come to all of our Lion lunches, our Bible studies, all the things that we’re doing. I mean, it’s incredible the stuff that we have happening, our mastermind groups, guys, I’m telling you, there’s just, it is too much to even list each and every day. These guys are in here and they are growing, so that’s your opportunity to join the community.

Again, the lion within.us, you can get that daily spiritual kickoff or the community right there at the Lion within us. And the last thing you can do to really help us. Just shared a podcast with someone else. Yes, ratings review help, and if you get a chance to do that, that’d be wonderful, but share the podcast with someone else.

That is how podcasts grow. That’s how we’re trying to do it. We’re going, we’re not putting any money in ads or anything like that. We’re just trying to rely on you being obedient to the spirit and sharing, sharing these messages with others. Okay. That’s what it’s all about fellas. So, so guys come back on Wednesday.

I got, we’re gonna have an episode and really break down how we can be victorious in Christ. I’m gonna try some new things on this Wednesday episode, so I think you’re gonna like it. We’re really looking forward to your feedback. So come on back, check, spend some time with us, but get this John 1633 cemented fellas, I’m telling you.

Get this one in your heart. Have this as one of your, it is writtens. You gotta have these things in your life so that you can start pursuing that, that life in Christ that I know you want to have. That’s it. That’s it. All right. So remember, take courage. He has overcome the world. All right, we’ll see you next time guys.

Have a great day. Get after it. Unleash the lion within.

Does your men’s group feel stale? Is men’s ministry at your church simply going through the motions. If the answer is yes, the lion within us is ready to give you the kickstart you need to get moving in the right direction. We have a host of topics from marriage, parenting, finances, and leadership that I am delivering myself to help your team start doing the work God has called you to do.

So I’m ready to come serve your groups in person and to get started. Visit Delion within. US slash speaking, that’s the lion within us slash speaking there. You can contact us directly or share the link with your church leadership to get started. Again, that’s the lion within us slash speaking and I look forward to helping others unleash the lion within.