August 21, 2023 • 20 mins
Are you feeling tangled in resentment, grudges, and unforgiveness? Join me, Chris Granger, in the Lion Within Us podcast where we unravel this complicated emotion and explore the essential act of forgiveness, drawing insights from Matthew 18:22. We'll discuss how unforgiveness clouds our joy and creates a foggy barrier between us and others. I'll be sharing perspectives on how forgiveness, rooted in love, can clear this fog and bring back the joy in our lives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Grainger (00:03):
Welcome to the Lion with Ennis, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
attends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, guys.
Spirit to kick off time, let'sget into it.
So we're going to be in Matthew18, okay, matthew chapter 18,
one verse.
Verse 22 says Jesus said untohim I say not unto thee, but
(00:25):
seven times, but until 70 timesseven.
So we're going to really unpackthat one verse and see how we
can simplify and apply it to ourlives, guys, because this week
we're going to be talking allabout forgiving our neighbors.
What that looks like and thatcan be so hard for us.
Fellas, I totally get it.
This is something I strugglewith, so I know that there are a
(00:46):
lot of guys out therestruggling with this.
So let's just unpack it.
Let's see what God's word hasgot to say and what the Holy
Spirit ultimately reveals to you.
Okay, first thing, we need toknow God, know where Matthew is
right and even know whereMatthew is.
That is the first book of theNew Testament.
Okay, so if you go to yourBible, go through your entire
Old Testament, get used to it.
(01:06):
There's a break right there foryour New Testament.
It may just be one page, andright there, matthew is the very
first gospel.
So you have Matthew, mark, lukeand John.
That are your four.
They are your four gospels,okay, so Matthew is the very
first one.
Matthew was a disciple of the,hung out with Jesus, did a lot
of things with Jesus.
He was a tax collector A lot ofthings there that, just when
you read Matthew, it's a reallygood book of the Bible, very
(01:29):
detailed, a lot of goodinformation.
So that's where we're at righthere, okay, so what's going on?
At this part of the scripture,peter just asked Jesus a
question, and his question washow often shall my brother sin
against me and I forgive him?
Up to seven times.
Now, it's his question.
Okay, pretty, pretty innocentquestion, you would think right,
(01:52):
and it's very interestingbecause we, typically, when we
think about forgiveness, we liketo put parameters around it,
don't we guys?
I'm just telling you, we dolike to put parameters around it
, and the same thing washappening.
Here is what Peter was doingwith Jesus.
So, back in this time, rabbiswould actually, though, were a
rabbiotic Judaism taught thatfour times meant genuine
(02:16):
repentance had not occurred.
Okay, so by saying three times,basically they taught you need
to forgive them three times andif you go past that, then their
forgiveness doesn't exist.
Okay, so, knowing this, peterprobably thought that that
number seven was astronomical.
That's basically he doubleddown on what the rabbis taught
(02:39):
and then he went one more Right.
So from Peter's standpoint he'slike yo, bro, use, this is how
they do it.
This is how I think we shoulddo it, because that is a big
number and you know it's kind ofa big deal.
I mean, when you think aboutforgiveness, but look what Jesus
did, he didn't just shoot thatdown, he shot that down quickly
(03:02):
and actually dumped all overthis thing, man.
And when you think about it notno, bro, not just 70 times, but
70 times seven.
And also when you think aboutthis you know, this is not
saying that you actually need totake that little number what
Jesus is saying is like no, it'snot 490 times forgiveness, no,
that is completely missing thepoint.
(03:23):
Your point is we should alwaysbe forgiving.
And when you start saying stufflike that, particularly to guys
, say what that can be hard forus to swallow.
Why?
Because that's it's so hard toeven wrap our minds around.
What do you mean?
I gotta keep forgiving, I gottakeep forgiving, I gotta keep
forgiving.
And Jesus is saying this is whatit's about, this is how you
(03:43):
show love right.
This is how, ultimately, thatwe're gonna show love and mercy
to others.
Because what this is going onhere, this is Jesus is teaching
us mercy field thinking, okay,mercy field thinking.
Now you got grace and you havemercy right.
Grace is getting what we don'tdeserve.
Mercy is not getting what we dodeserve.
(04:03):
So many times we don't need youknow, we don't deserve that to
forgive others.
And what Jesus is pointing usto is like look, it ain't about
us, it's about explaining thatforgiveness, about leading with
love, and that should lead us todo everything that we do each
and every day.
So you can't put parametersaround it, right, you should be
spiritually whole fellas.
(04:24):
You gotta let unforgiveness go.
Because what happens when youlet unforgiveness just sit down
and just take root and startbuilding and building, and
building?
It's kind of like a cancer.
It probably starts off small,but next thing you know, it
starts taking over and whathappens?
Unforgiveness robs you of joyand if you have, and just it
removes so much of joy from yourlife, and you'll find this.
(04:48):
It's kind of like a fog thatjust gets around you and the
more and more bills it, biggerand bigger and bigger, and the
next thing you know, you're justthis bitter person and no one
wants to be around.
And if you find yourself in thisstate of mind, you gotta gotta
just break free of this.
And you can break free byforgiving others.
(05:08):
And remember there are noperfect people the only perfect
one we crucified.
There's no such thing asperfection.
So you have to learn whatforgiveness truly looks like.
So Jesus is just pointing outright here that, look, you need
to untwist your thinking Because, no, it's not about a number,
it's not about a law or rule oranything like that.
(05:29):
He only gave us to love God,love others, and at the root of
forgiveness you will find love.
That's just where you find it.
You're never going to beforgiven, be able to forgive
others if you can't have love inyour heart.
And that's my encouragement toyou guys is to think about
(05:51):
forgiveness from that standpoint.
What does it actually look like?
How can I walk this out?
How can I love all of others?
How can I show love towardsothers?
By actually walking outforgiveness and I'm not talking
about just saying the words, butthe words mean so little.
You know how you showforgiveness to others, guys,
(06:11):
this is a totally spirit-filledmoment right here.
You show forgiveness to othersby the actions, the actions that
take.
So are you walking out youractions of forgiveness and truly
showing others that you, thatyou've not only just say the
words, but that you mean it andyou're leading love?
(06:33):
Remember the fruit Love is thevery first one Peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faith, andyou know self-control.
You have all these fruit thatare coming out of your life, but
you're showing it to otherswhen it comes to forgiveness,
because it doesn't mean like,yeah, I'll forgive you if it's
not contractual.
Right, it's not.
You can't have forgiveness tiedaround a contract.
(06:55):
That's not true forgiveness.
That's not what Jesus ispointing to here.
He's like no, I didn't say toyou up to seven times, but to
seventy times seven.
Basically, just do all yourmath, all your thinking, out the
window.
The forgiveness I'm talkingabout here, simon Peter, the
forgiveness that I want you tothink about, is outside of your
(07:16):
thinking.
It's not tied to anything thatyou try to put rules around.
I just want you to love othersand forgive them.
And look, that can be hard.
I know some, some stories rightnow.
I'm thinking about some Twoguys right now that are real
close to me, and one of them haslost a daughter.
(07:37):
One of them, son is is battlinga disease or sickness, a
medical condition rather.
And you know, when you see stufflike that, you're like how do
you forgive stuff like that man?
Like how do you forgive someonewho kills your daughter?
How do you forgive when yourson is basically battling for
(08:00):
his life?
And it can be such a dark pathand at the root of it.
All I can do is look at theseverses right here.
You know he doesn't say it upto seven times, but seven times,
seven Just.
You have to find thatforgiveness in your heart
somehow, and you can't do it onyour own.
(08:21):
There's no way we could forgivethat, this type of stuff, on
our own.
The Holy Spirit has got to comeand dwell you.
Give you that wisdom, give youthat discernment, give you that
ability to extend this type offorgiveness, because we're not
talking about, we're forgivingsomebody because they cut us off
in traffic.
Maybe that's the tough one foryou guys too, but when you get
real life, things really happenLike losing a child or sickness
(08:46):
or things like that.
Man, it can be hard to justforgive Right.
It doesn't come natural.
We want justice, we wantvengeance.
We want, you know, for peopleto pay.
You know, while there's a timeand a place for that and I
totally get to there's a timeand a place for that, at the end
of the day, we got to becareful because our pursuit of
(09:09):
that sometimes can rob us of ourown joy.
Guys, you got to be carefulwith that because that's the
piece that you can't let starttaking root in your heart.
Because if that takes root inyour heart, next thing you know,
you're letting othercircumstances dictate what's
going on with you directly.
Man, it could be so scary, itcan really have such a big
(09:32):
impact and I don't want that tobe for you guys.
I want you guys to be justextravagant forgivers, just to
where it's so natural, a part ofwho you are.
It's just what you do.
You just forgive and youforgive for a reason, because
God, he has called us to do thatand we know that is how we can
unleash the line with it.
(09:52):
Be that extravagant forgiver,guys.
So I pray you learn somethinghere for this one.
This is a pretty importantverse here.
This is one you need to makeone of your interest-written
fellows, no doubt about it.
And I want the question I wantyou to think about this week as
you move forward how canforgiveness extend beyond the
limits that we set?
Because we put limits onforgiveness a lot, don't we
(10:13):
fellas?
I want ourselves, we put ourown expectations around
forgiveness and we define theseparameters.
What would that look like ifthat went beyond what we think
and we forgave the way Jesuscalled us to?
It would be beautiful, wouldn'tit?
It would.
And that's how you unleash it,buddy.
(10:34):
That right there, get out ofyour way.
Do it God's way, unleashed inline with it.
Now, if you've never acceptedJesus as your savior, on our
spiritual kickoffs each andevery week, we wanna just share
the good news of the gospel withyou.
Right Now, many of you guysmaybe tune out from here on out
or maybe flip to another podcast.
Hey, and that's fine.
If you accept the Christ asyour savior and you don't need
(10:57):
this reminder, fine.
My challenge to you is this Ifyou're not sharing the gospel on
a regular basis, use thisspiritual kickoff as a quick way
to remind you how to just do abasic gospel presentation.
My gospel presentation is verysimple.
We're all sinners.
We're all sinners in need of asavior.
I say it every week, we're notmistake us in need of a life
(11:17):
coach.
We are sinners in need of asavior.
And we have to first understandthat.
And a sin is anything thatseparates us from God.
And that's it Now, as there'snothing we can do to overcome
the sin, that gap between us andGod.
Because when sin entered theworld, we can't work our way
there, you can't nice for yourway there, you can't help a wage
(11:38):
cost to treat you way there,you can't give the charity there
, you can't volunteer to getthere.
Nope, there's nothing you cando.
That's called work, work'sbased righteousness, and there's
no such thing.
So we are a center separatedfrom God.
Now, second thing you have tobelieve, truly believe, that
Jesus Christ is the Son of Godand that what he came down from
(11:59):
heaven and he took on human formand he lived amongst us and he
taught us and he did these signs, he did all these different
teachings and he showed us theway and then, when they
crucified him, when his bloodran, he poured out his blood for
us.
He was thinking about you whenhe went to Calvary and paid the
price for your sins.
That was it.
You were on his mind and Jesusdied.
(12:21):
He didn't pass out, he didn'tjust go to sleep, he died.
He was laid in a tomb.
But three days later heovercame death and at that
moment, when he walked out ofthat tomb, he said he proved
right, there he was the penaltyfor our sin.
Death no longer holds it, deathno longer holds us.
(12:43):
There's nothing that will happento us here, that Jesus Christ,
right here, as a bloodbrawl, abeliever in Jesus, that we
cannot overcome by putting ourfaith and trust in him.
I'm just telling you I'm notsaying it's gonna always be easy
, but I will tell you, if youput your faith in him and you
let him guide and direct you,you will have that wisdom,
(13:04):
you'll have that discernment,you'll have that insight to do
what he's called you to do.
But he had started believingthat he is the Son of God.
Then he had to confess him asLord and I'm not talking about
as a teacher and just.
Thank you, jesus, for showingme the way and for loving me,
deciding to know before theBible tells me.
So no, you have to confess himas Lord, lord of your life.
(13:27):
That's a big deal.
That's a big deal Because allof a sudden he becomes Lord of
your finances, lord of yourmarriage, your intimacy in your
bedroom, lord of your how aboutthis one?
Lord of your money, your career.
When you start talking aboutthat kind of stuff, guys start
backing down.
Wait a minute.
I don't know if I wannasurrender to him for all these
(13:49):
areas.
What I'm telling you, fellas?
If you don't, you're missing anopportunity.
You're missing an opportunityfor a major freedom that you
cannot find anywhere.
The rarest commodity on earthis peace of mind.
You're never gonna have it andyou're not gonna have it, and
you're not gonna have it.
I'm offering you the best thingI can ever give you, and that
is salvation through the onecalled Jesus Christ.
(14:11):
So if you have never put yourfaith in Him and you're ready to
do that, let's pray, and myFather just thank you so much
for this opportunity to use theline within us to point others
to the good news of the gospel.
I pray that there's a man or awoman listening right now who's
ready to accept you as theirsavior.
I pray that they're ready toturn from their ways and
(14:31):
understand that they don't gotthis, lord, but you do, and I
know the way you openly receiveothers.
That's the way you love others,the way that you would just
receive them into your kingdom.
I pray you just pour out thatHoly Spirit upon them right now,
that they feel your peace, theyfeel your presence, they feel
your touch, lord, they guide anddirect them.
(14:52):
I pray you just shut doorsaround them and need to be shut.
Open doors that need to beopened, god for them.
You guide and direct them ontheir path, father, and let them
have a deep relationship withyou that they also now, lord,
take the opportunity to sharetheir salvation and what they
found by putting their trust inyou with others.
I pray all this to go accordingto your will in Jesus' name,
(15:15):
amen.
All right, so just a few justaccept the Christ as your savior
.
First and foremost,congratulations.
The biggest news you could everdo for you, the biggest part,
the biggest steps you can evermake in your life.
I wanna say justcongratulations to it.
Also, I wanna hook you up withsome things because you have now
entered the battlefield.
I always do that after we dothe prayer of salvation, because
you know what.
Not many people would probablydo it if they knew that you know
(15:37):
what.
We're getting ready to go tobattle.
But the reality is you havebeen in a battle all along, you
just didn't know it.
Now the scales are off youreyes.
You can see that the HolySpirit's going to guide you,
it's going to direct you, it'sgonna give you that conviction
to do what you need to do forthe work that God's calling you
to.
And I wanna hook you up.
I'm gonna give you our Biblestudy.
I'm gonna give you someresources right now to get you
started, to get you ready.
(15:58):
I'll get all this to you forfree.
Send me an emailsupportatblionwithinus.
That'ssupportatdthelionwithinus.
I'll hook you up with thoseresources.
I was actually able to do thatfor a gentleman just this week
and he reached out to us andwanted to Bible study.
I'm like, absolutely I'm gonnahook you up.
(16:19):
You know you're a new bloodball believer.
Let's get this thing going.
So definitely I'll reach out tohim.
He'd let me know if you needthat, would love to support you
and I also just wanna give you avirtual high five.
Love to jump on a Zoom call prewith you, answer any questions
you may have and just welcomeyou to the brotherhood, all
right, fellas.
So, look, come on back onWednesday.
(16:40):
We're gonna have a really goodepisode here, gonna talk a lot
about forgiving your neighbor,what that actually looks like
and how we can actually takeGod's word.
Okay, simplify, play it.
Make a huge difference, hugedifference, fellas.
Okay.
So, look, share this out withothers.
For sure, that's a great way todo it.
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Remember to make this Matthew18.22 and start practicing
forgiveness true forgivenessthis week.
Okay, get after it, fellas.
(18:06):
Start forgiving, stay strong,unleash the lionwithin.
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Welcome to the Lion with Ennis, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
attends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, guys.
Spirit to kick off time, let'sget into it.
So we're going to be in Matthew18, okay, matthew chapter 18,
one verse.
Verse 22 says Jesus said untohim I say not unto thee, but
(00:25):
seven times, but until 70 timesseven.
So we're going to really unpackthat one verse and see how we
can simplify and apply it to ourlives, guys, because this week
we're going to be talking allabout forgiving our neighbors.
What that looks like and thatcan be so hard for us.
Fellas, I totally get it.
This is something I strugglewith, so I know that there are a
(00:46):
lot of guys out therestruggling with this.
So let's just unpack it.
Let's see what God's word hasgot to say and what the Holy
Spirit ultimately reveals to you.
Okay, first thing, we need toknow God, know where Matthew is
right and even know whereMatthew is.
That is the first book of theNew Testament.
Okay, so if you go to yourBible, go through your entire
Old Testament, get used to it.
(01:06):
There's a break right there foryour New Testament.
It may just be one page, andright there, matthew is the very
first gospel.
So you have Matthew, mark, lukeand John.
That are your four.
They are your four gospels,okay, so Matthew is the very
first one.
Matthew was a disciple of the,hung out with Jesus, did a lot
of things with Jesus.
He was a tax collector A lot ofthings there that, just when
you read Matthew, it's a reallygood book of the Bible, very
(01:29):
detailed, a lot of goodinformation.
So that's where we're at righthere, okay, so what's going on?
At this part of the scripture,peter just asked Jesus a
question, and his question washow often shall my brother sin
against me and I forgive him?
Up to seven times.
Now, it's his question.
Okay, pretty, pretty innocentquestion, you would think right,
(01:52):
and it's very interestingbecause we, typically, when we
think about forgiveness, we liketo put parameters around it,
don't we guys?
I'm just telling you, we dolike to put parameters around it
, and the same thing washappening.
Here is what Peter was doingwith Jesus.
So, back in this time, rabbiswould actually, though, were a
rabbiotic Judaism taught thatfour times meant genuine
(02:16):
repentance had not occurred.
Okay, so by saying three times,basically they taught you need
to forgive them three times andif you go past that, then their
forgiveness doesn't exist.
Okay, so, knowing this, peterprobably thought that that
number seven was astronomical.
That's basically he doubleddown on what the rabbis taught
(02:39):
and then he went one more Right.
So from Peter's standpoint he'slike yo, bro, use, this is how
they do it.
This is how I think we shoulddo it, because that is a big
number and you know it's kind ofa big deal.
I mean, when you think aboutforgiveness, but look what Jesus
did, he didn't just shoot thatdown, he shot that down quickly
(03:02):
and actually dumped all overthis thing, man.
And when you think about it notno, bro, not just 70 times, but
70 times seven.
And also when you think aboutthis you know, this is not
saying that you actually need totake that little number what
Jesus is saying is like no, it'snot 490 times forgiveness, no,
that is completely missing thepoint.
(03:23):
Your point is we should alwaysbe forgiving.
And when you start saying stufflike that, particularly to guys
, say what that can be hard forus to swallow.
Why?
Because that's it's so hard toeven wrap our minds around.
What do you mean?
I gotta keep forgiving, I gottakeep forgiving, I gotta keep
forgiving.
And Jesus is saying this is whatit's about, this is how you
(03:43):
show love right.
This is how, ultimately, thatwe're gonna show love and mercy
to others.
Because what this is going onhere, this is Jesus is teaching
us mercy field thinking, okay,mercy field thinking.
Now you got grace and you havemercy right.
Grace is getting what we don'tdeserve.
Mercy is not getting what we dodeserve.
(04:03):
So many times we don't need youknow, we don't deserve that to
forgive others.
And what Jesus is pointing usto is like look, it ain't about
us, it's about explaining thatforgiveness, about leading with
love, and that should lead us todo everything that we do each
and every day.
So you can't put parametersaround it, right, you should be
spiritually whole fellas.
(04:24):
You gotta let unforgiveness go.
Because what happens when youlet unforgiveness just sit down
and just take root and startbuilding and building, and
building?
It's kind of like a cancer.
It probably starts off small,but next thing you know, it
starts taking over and whathappens?
Unforgiveness robs you of joyand if you have, and just it
removes so much of joy from yourlife, and you'll find this.
(04:48):
It's kind of like a fog thatjust gets around you and the
more and more bills it, biggerand bigger and bigger, and the
next thing you know, you're justthis bitter person and no one
wants to be around.
And if you find yourself in thisstate of mind, you gotta gotta
just break free of this.
And you can break free byforgiving others.
(05:08):
And remember there are noperfect people the only perfect
one we crucified.
There's no such thing asperfection.
So you have to learn whatforgiveness truly looks like.
So Jesus is just pointing outright here that, look, you need
to untwist your thinking Because, no, it's not about a number,
it's not about a law or rule oranything like that.
(05:29):
He only gave us to love God,love others, and at the root of
forgiveness you will find love.
That's just where you find it.
You're never going to beforgiven, be able to forgive
others if you can't have love inyour heart.
And that's my encouragement toyou guys is to think about
(05:51):
forgiveness from that standpoint.
What does it actually look like?
How can I walk this out?
How can I love all of others?
How can I show love towardsothers?
By actually walking outforgiveness and I'm not talking
about just saying the words, butthe words mean so little.
You know how you showforgiveness to others, guys,
(06:11):
this is a totally spirit-filledmoment right here.
You show forgiveness to othersby the actions, the actions that
take.
So are you walking out youractions of forgiveness and truly
showing others that you, thatyou've not only just say the
words, but that you mean it andyou're leading love?
(06:33):
Remember the fruit Love is thevery first one Peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faith, andyou know self-control.
You have all these fruit thatare coming out of your life, but
you're showing it to otherswhen it comes to forgiveness,
because it doesn't mean like,yeah, I'll forgive you if it's
not contractual.
Right, it's not.
You can't have forgiveness tiedaround a contract.
(06:55):
That's not true forgiveness.
That's not what Jesus ispointing to here.
He's like no, I didn't say toyou up to seven times, but to
seventy times seven.
Basically, just do all yourmath, all your thinking, out the
window.
The forgiveness I'm talkingabout here, simon Peter, the
forgiveness that I want you tothink about, is outside of your
(07:16):
thinking.
It's not tied to anything thatyou try to put rules around.
I just want you to love othersand forgive them.
And look, that can be hard.
I know some, some stories rightnow.
I'm thinking about some Twoguys right now that are real
close to me, and one of them haslost a daughter.
(07:37):
One of them, son is is battlinga disease or sickness, a
medical condition rather.
And you know, when you see stufflike that, you're like how do
you forgive stuff like that man?
Like how do you forgive someonewho kills your daughter?
How do you forgive when yourson is basically battling for
(08:00):
his life?
And it can be such a dark pathand at the root of it.
All I can do is look at theseverses right here.
You know he doesn't say it upto seven times, but seven times,
seven Just.
You have to find thatforgiveness in your heart
somehow, and you can't do it onyour own.
(08:21):
There's no way we could forgivethat, this type of stuff, on
our own.
The Holy Spirit has got to comeand dwell you.
Give you that wisdom, give youthat discernment, give you that
ability to extend this type offorgiveness, because we're not
talking about, we're forgivingsomebody because they cut us off
in traffic.
Maybe that's the tough one foryou guys too, but when you get
real life, things really happenLike losing a child or sickness
(08:46):
or things like that.
Man, it can be hard to justforgive Right.
It doesn't come natural.
We want justice, we wantvengeance.
We want, you know, for peopleto pay.
You know, while there's a timeand a place for that and I
totally get to there's a timeand a place for that, at the end
of the day, we got to becareful because our pursuit of
(09:09):
that sometimes can rob us of ourown joy.
Guys, you got to be carefulwith that because that's the
piece that you can't let starttaking root in your heart.
Because if that takes root inyour heart, next thing you know,
you're letting othercircumstances dictate what's
going on with you directly.
Man, it could be so scary, itcan really have such a big
(09:32):
impact and I don't want that tobe for you guys.
I want you guys to be justextravagant forgivers, just to
where it's so natural, a part ofwho you are.
It's just what you do.
You just forgive and youforgive for a reason, because
God, he has called us to do thatand we know that is how we can
unleash the line with it.
(09:52):
Be that extravagant forgiver,guys.
So I pray you learn somethinghere for this one.
This is a pretty importantverse here.
This is one you need to makeone of your interest-written
fellows, no doubt about it.
And I want the question I wantyou to think about this week as
you move forward how canforgiveness extend beyond the
limits that we set?
Because we put limits onforgiveness a lot, don't we
(10:13):
fellas?
I want ourselves, we put ourown expectations around
forgiveness and we define theseparameters.
What would that look like ifthat went beyond what we think
and we forgave the way Jesuscalled us to?
It would be beautiful, wouldn'tit?
It would.
And that's how you unleash it,buddy.
(10:34):
That right there, get out ofyour way.
Do it God's way, unleashed inline with it.
Now, if you've never acceptedJesus as your savior, on our
spiritual kickoffs each andevery week, we wanna just share
the good news of the gospel withyou.
Right Now, many of you guysmaybe tune out from here on out
or maybe flip to another podcast.
Hey, and that's fine.
If you accept the Christ asyour savior and you don't need
(10:57):
this reminder, fine.
My challenge to you is this Ifyou're not sharing the gospel on
a regular basis, use thisspiritual kickoff as a quick way
to remind you how to just do abasic gospel presentation.
My gospel presentation is verysimple.
We're all sinners.
We're all sinners in need of asavior.
I say it every week, we're notmistake us in need of a life
(11:17):
coach.
We are sinners in need of asavior.
And we have to first understandthat.
And a sin is anything thatseparates us from God.
And that's it Now, as there'snothing we can do to overcome
the sin, that gap between us andGod.
Because when sin entered theworld, we can't work our way
there, you can't nice for yourway there, you can't help a wage
(11:38):
cost to treat you way there,you can't give the charity there
, you can't volunteer to getthere.
Nope, there's nothing you cando.
That's called work, work'sbased righteousness, and there's
no such thing.
So we are a center separatedfrom God.
Now, second thing you have tobelieve, truly believe, that
Jesus Christ is the Son of Godand that what he came down from
(11:59):
heaven and he took on human formand he lived amongst us and he
taught us and he did these signs, he did all these different
teachings and he showed us theway and then, when they
crucified him, when his bloodran, he poured out his blood for
us.
He was thinking about you whenhe went to Calvary and paid the
price for your sins.
That was it.
You were on his mind and Jesusdied.
(12:21):
He didn't pass out, he didn'tjust go to sleep, he died.
He was laid in a tomb.
But three days later heovercame death and at that
moment, when he walked out ofthat tomb, he said he proved
right, there he was the penaltyfor our sin.
Death no longer holds it, deathno longer holds us.
(12:43):
There's nothing that will happento us here, that Jesus Christ,
right here, as a bloodbrawl, abeliever in Jesus, that we
cannot overcome by putting ourfaith and trust in him.
I'm just telling you I'm notsaying it's gonna always be easy
, but I will tell you, if youput your faith in him and you
let him guide and direct you,you will have that wisdom,
(13:04):
you'll have that discernment,you'll have that insight to do
what he's called you to do.
But he had started believingthat he is the Son of God.
Then he had to confess him asLord and I'm not talking about
as a teacher and just.
Thank you, jesus, for showingme the way and for loving me,
deciding to know before theBible tells me.
So no, you have to confess himas Lord, lord of your life.
(13:27):
That's a big deal.
That's a big deal Because allof a sudden he becomes Lord of
your finances, lord of yourmarriage, your intimacy in your
bedroom, lord of your how aboutthis one?
Lord of your money, your career.
When you start talking aboutthat kind of stuff, guys start
backing down.
Wait a minute.
I don't know if I wannasurrender to him for all these
(13:49):
areas.
What I'm telling you, fellas?
If you don't, you're missing anopportunity.
You're missing an opportunityfor a major freedom that you
cannot find anywhere.
The rarest commodity on earthis peace of mind.
You're never gonna have it andyou're not gonna have it, and
you're not gonna have it.
I'm offering you the best thingI can ever give you, and that
is salvation through the onecalled Jesus Christ.
(14:11):
So if you have never put yourfaith in Him and you're ready to
do that, let's pray, and myFather just thank you so much
for this opportunity to use theline within us to point others
to the good news of the gospel.
I pray that there's a man or awoman listening right now who's
ready to accept you as theirsavior.
I pray that they're ready toturn from their ways and
(14:31):
understand that they don't gotthis, lord, but you do, and I
know the way you openly receiveothers.
That's the way you love others,the way that you would just
receive them into your kingdom.
I pray you just pour out thatHoly Spirit upon them right now,
that they feel your peace, theyfeel your presence, they feel
your touch, lord, they guide anddirect them.
(14:52):
I pray you just shut doorsaround them and need to be shut.
Open doors that need to beopened, god for them.
You guide and direct them ontheir path, father, and let them
have a deep relationship withyou that they also now, lord,
take the opportunity to sharetheir salvation and what they
found by putting their trust inyou with others.
I pray all this to go accordingto your will in Jesus' name,
(15:15):
amen.
All right, so just a few justaccept the Christ as your savior
.
First and foremost,congratulations.
The biggest news you could everdo for you, the biggest part,
the biggest steps you can evermake in your life.
I wanna say justcongratulations to it.
Also, I wanna hook you up withsome things because you have now
entered the battlefield.
I always do that after we dothe prayer of salvation, because
you know what.
Not many people would probablydo it if they knew that you know
(15:37):
what.
We're getting ready to go tobattle.
But the reality is you havebeen in a battle all along, you
just didn't know it.
Now the scales are off youreyes.
You can see that the HolySpirit's going to guide you,
it's going to direct you, it'sgonna give you that conviction
to do what you need to do forthe work that God's calling you
to.
And I wanna hook you up.
I'm gonna give you our Biblestudy.
I'm gonna give you someresources right now to get you
started, to get you ready.
(15:58):
I'll get all this to you forfree.
Send me an emailsupportatblionwithinus.
That'ssupportatdthelionwithinus.
I'll hook you up with thoseresources.
I was actually able to do thatfor a gentleman just this week
and he reached out to us andwanted to Bible study.
I'm like, absolutely I'm gonnahook you up.
(16:19):
You know you're a new bloodball believer.
Let's get this thing going.
So definitely I'll reach out tohim.
He'd let me know if you needthat, would love to support you
and I also just wanna give you avirtual high five.
Love to jump on a Zoom call prewith you, answer any questions
you may have and just welcomeyou to the brotherhood, all
right, fellas.
So, look, come on back onWednesday.
(16:40):
We're gonna have a really goodepisode here, gonna talk a lot
about forgiving your neighbor,what that actually looks like
and how we can actually takeGod's word.
Okay, simplify, play it.
Make a huge difference, hugedifference, fellas.
Okay.
So, look, share this out withothers.
For sure, that's a great way todo it.
You like the Daily Spirit forkickoffs?
We do a Monday through Fridayin our community.
(17:02):
Go to the lionwithinus If youwanna be part of that.
That's a great way to supportour ministry.
We would ask for your support,we'd ask for your donations.
Help us out, Be a monthlymember, be a monthly donor to
just give you know what.
Maybe I'm not ready to be in acommunity, but I wanna support
you guys and be able to justsponsor someone.
We have people who sponsormembers every month and they
(17:24):
just pay their membership duesand it's a great way to pay it
forward to help others.
Maybe that's a little bitfurther down the road and you
just wanna help out someone.
This is a great way to do it,okay, because we're putting tons
of effort, time, resources thathelp men be the leaders God has
tends them to be.
So go and check out thelionwithinus.
(17:46):
Hop on our 30 days to unleashthe lionwithin.
That's a great way to getstarted, an easy way to get
started and a free way to getstarted.
We wanna give you someresources to help you get going.
So come on back on Wednesday.
Look forward to seeing you guys.
Remember to make this Matthew18.22 and start practicing
forgiveness true forgivenessthis week.
Okay, get after it, fellas.
(18:06):
Start forgiving, stay strong,unleash the lionwithin.
Are you enjoying the weeklyspiritual kickoff?
If so, we are now offering away to participate in our live,
daily spiritual kickoffs thathappen Monday through Friday in
(18:27):
our community.
This is your chance to chatwith me directly and other
members of our community, todive into scripture and to leave
with practical ways to simplifyand apply God's word to your
daily walk.
And here's the best part youget all of this for just $5 a
month.
So for what most people pay fora breakfast meal, you can join
us on this journey of spiritualgrowth and leadership, which
(18:49):
will always lead you full.
Our community is dedicated tosupporting each other and
pushing forward in our faith.
Come join me in the lion's denand become the leader God
intends you to be Sign up now atthe lionwithinus and let's
start this journey together.
Remember it's only $5 a monthfor this amazing opportunity.
So visit the lionwithinus soyou don't miss out.
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