March 26, 2025 • 27 mins
Do you find yourself constantly running from one commitment to the next with barely a moment to breathe? In this powerful episode, we dive deep into the biblical concept of margin and why it's absolutely essential for Christian men who want to grow as disciples and leaders. The story of Martha and Mary serves as our foundation, revealing how even well-intentioned service can rob us of what matters most. Martha's frantic preparations while Jesus sat in her living room mirror our own tendency to prioritize busyness over presence. As Jesus gently reminded her, "Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
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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 Within Us, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
intends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, it's me time, let's get into it, okay.
So the scripture of the weekthis week, luke 10, verse 41 to
42,.
It says Martha, martha, theLord answered you are worried
and upset about many things, butfew are needed, or indeed,
(00:23):
indeed, only one.
Mary has chosen which is betterand it will not be taken away
from her.
So the whole idea this week,guys, we're unpacking, is why
margin is important in our life,and I know this topic is
relevant because I talked to somany guys and the average
schedule is mindblowing.
(00:44):
Days are planned out down tothe minute, right, often months
in advance.
We have reminders andnotifications always popping up.
Okay, here's the next thingthat needs your attention.
Here's the next thing thatneeds your attention.
Don't forget this one.
And then, before you know it,your life flies by in a constant
state of reaction, and thatscares the crap out of me.
(01:05):
Scripture suggests that havingsome margin in our life for the
holy interruptions that comeacross our path are needed.
It's a reprieve from the worldof chaos we live in and I just
want to just take a dive intoGod's word and study this
together and think about this.
(01:28):
And again, this is a Bible study.
That's on the Bible app forYouVersion.
So, if you're on YouVersion, gocheck out our page.
Go to thelinewiththemus, checkon free tools, check out the
Bible studies.
We have tons and tons of Biblestudies out there and we even do
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So you can friend me, we canconnect there on the Bible app
(01:51):
and as we kick off these studiestogether, we can engage and
have comments and back and forth.
It's just a fun time.
So, again, thelinewithinus,click on those free tools, down
to the Bible studies and getstarted.
All right, now we're going tostart out this.
Today we're almost going to readthe scripture of the week this
week again, 41 to 42, but weneed a little more context.
(02:13):
Context is always good.
So let's look at Luke 10,starting at 38, 38 through 42.
And it says now, as they weretraveling along, he entered a
village and a woman named Marthawelcomed him into her home.
She had a sister called Marywho was seated at the Lord's
feet listening to his word, butMartha was distracted with all
her preparations.
And she came up to him and saidLord, lord, do you not care
(02:35):
that my sister has left me to doall the serving alone?
Then tell her to help me, thenwe get the Scripture of the Week
.
But the Lord answered and saidto her Martha, martha, you're
worried and bothered about somany things, but only one thing
is necessary, for Mary haschosen a good part, which is
what shall we not, what shallnot be taken away from her?
So again, big margin deficiency, big margin deficiency.
(03:00):
Out there, every generation Idon't know anybody I've talked
to that says you know, I got somuch free time.
It's generation I don't knowanybody I've talked to that says
you know, I've got so much freetime, I don't even know what to
do with it.
That comment doesn't existbecause we jam our schedules so
tight.
And a prudent way to look atthis is to see if the same
(03:24):
behavior was, was existing inJesus' ministry.
And it wasn't right.
Jesus was no, he had plenty ofmargin right.
And what's comical is thatMartha often, often, gets a bad
rap.
She does Uh, cause, cause.
Essentially, she was told tostop for a minute.
(03:46):
Be where your feet are, martha.
But when I think about it, shewas responding to the greatest
guest that would ever come toher home.
And I get the response.
And you know what?
It's the flatter bone begetting ready.
And I totally get it.
(04:10):
But let's say you had a contestthat you entered, okay.
And let's say you received acall that you won this contest
and the winning of this contestwas the person who you love the
most, like the biggest celebrityfan, whoever that may be,
they're going to be at yourhouse, come to your home, but
(04:32):
here's the caveat they're goingto be there in two hours.
How would you spend that timewaiting?
Okay, now for me, I know what'sgoing to happen If that happens
boom, I'm rocking, like we'regoing in cleaning mode like
never before.
We're going to get ready.
It's going to be awesome andI'm going to do all I can to
prepare so that, when theyarrive, I can just enjoy that
(04:55):
time.
And I get it.
Okay, and the buzz, theexcitement, I mean all the stuff
.
I can imagine Martha juststuffing the drawers and the
closets, just right, just clean,clean, clean, put it up Right.
And because she's trying toconceal the reality of her
circumstances, which is justlife, and we put a smile on our
(05:18):
face.
We finished that flight and wethe funny part is, we even
welcome a guest in after we doit.
And what do we first?
First thing we say, oh, justexcuse the mess, not like, come
on now, seriously, bro.
So I get it.
This it's real.
And martha had a really goodreason to fully engage this
cleaning because, let's face it,the messiah was in her living
(05:40):
room.
I mean, come on, okay on, Idon't care how cool, you are the
biggest celebrity that you know.
Nobody as important as Jesus hasever entered your living room
and, just like Jesus does, intrue Jesus fashion, he teaches
Martha and through that he'steaching us why that margin is
(06:00):
so important and we must protectit and utilize it to taste what
he's trying to give us, becausehe was inviting Martha as well
into a beautiful moment whereshe could rest, reflect and
strengthen that relationship.
Mary had the margin and sheknew it.
She had energy, she hadreflection to prioritize and
learn.
(06:20):
That was important, right, andwe may think ourselves as
learners, but Mary shows us thatbeing a learner is impossible
if we don't have the margin tocreate the space to learn.
Does that make sense?
So Jesus is just showing usright here that if we don't have
that margin, that we findourselves chasing the calendar
(06:43):
and the priorities and all thethings that are predetermined
right.
They limit our ability toidentify what opportunities when
the opportunities come acrossthe place where God desires to
soak into us.
And I've had to really wrestlewith this.
But Mary's not lazy, she's not.
She was intentional and I thinkthat's so important to remember
(07:06):
to not paint these people whoare prioritizing margin as being
lazy.
If he were to enter my hometoday, I hope I would have the
wherewithal and the margin tostop, to be still and just be
with him right where I'm at andnot worry about all the things
(07:29):
that are happening.
My personality says I probablywould struggle with that, just
to be honest, but I'm trying tofight and to think through how
can I be more intentional inthis area?
All right, so look, guys, we'lltake our first break, we'll
come back and we're going totalk about the consequences of
no margin.
We'll be right back.
(07:54):
I don't know about you, but Iused to find Mondays really
rough.
I would find myself trying toreset for work, trying to get my
bearing on the family calendar,trying to find time for my own
spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself
overwhelmed or just flatlyignoring aspects of my life that
I know are meaningful to me.
What I learned was that if Ihad immediate access to
(08:17):
important and impactfulspiritual topics and reflections
to start my week well, afterthe allure of a Sunday sermon
has passed, I would set my wholeweek up to be more meaningful
and for the opportunity to makea true impact.
If you think that getting such aboost would help your week to
get started on the right foot,we would love for you to sign up
(08:39):
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Each week will deliver apowerful reflection and
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So so, in just a few minutes,we hope to arm you with insights
(09:02):
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.
If that sounds useful, headover to thelionwithinus slash
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That's thelionwithinus slashROAR to sign up today.
That's the lion within dot U Sslash R O A?
R to get your weekly ROAR today.
(09:25):
All right, guys welcome back.
So, again, we just opened up.
We've talked about why we needthat margin in our life, okay,
so that's super important toknow.
Now we need to talk about theconsequences.
So what happens if we don'thave margin?
And Proverbs 21, 16 sayswhoever strays from the path of
prudence comes to rest in thecompany of the departing.
(09:45):
And prudent is a word that mostpeople are familiar with, but
connecting prudence with ourdaily walk is challenging,
because prudent means beingcareful about our choices.
That means we have to stop, wehave to think before we act.
Right, it's not just knee-jerkreactions, no, we're being
prudent here.
And in the context of thisverse, it appears that a failure
(10:07):
to be prudent over ourschedules not only robs us from
marching guys, but it increasesthe propensity to lose our way.
And that is super, super, it'sscary.
And that that is super, super,that's scary.
And there's in the high-techworld today.
Think about this for a second.
Nobody's ever lost anymore,right, they're?
(10:28):
They're not.
Now.
If you were to be able to get aborrow bar our buddy marty
mcfly's delorean right and headback to the 90s, you would find
that going on a trip.
It required something, okay, itrequired planning, it required
maps, it required this thingcalled atlases, and getting lost
was easy to do because thenavigation was done in the
(10:50):
moment Right, and the moreprudent the navigator, the
higher probability of landing atyour destination.
No, I mean, it happens to meand my wife all the time when,
when, for some reason, she'll,hey, you should have turned back
there, I'm like, well, youshould have told me for soon.
But anyway, that's a wholenother story.
But then I remember a trip,though there was a trip that
comes to mind, this is a funnyone.
It was a motorcycle trip.
(11:11):
We were headed to Cherokee.
It was awesome.
Me was, my dad lost his way andall of a sudden we were riding
coming from virginia to cherokeeokay, and that's in north
carolina and all of a sudden weget a sign.
And it was at night, and we hita sign that said welcome to
(11:35):
tennessee.
I'm like uh-oh.
And then at that moment we werealized we had wandered off the
desired path.
Right Now we had to do a littlecourse correction, a little bit
of jabbing, a little bit ofhazing, but we redirected and we
were able to have a really goodtime of fellowship and spend
that time in the Great SmokyMountains.
But the sign right, thatwelcome sign that we saw welcome
(11:57):
to Tennessee was a moment ofclarity for us Because it
clearly showed us that weweren't in the right, where we
were supposed to be.
And it made me think.
How often do we miss the signs,simply because there's not
enough margin in our lives tolook up?
Or perhaps even worse, thesigns that we should see are not
(12:18):
visible at all because of thecompany that we're surrounding
ourselves with.
They're an obstruction to thatsign.
I'm telling you this is a bigdeal, because the world we live
in really what happens?
We have to be careful, becausewe start relaxing our morals,
our virtues, our values and wego to extreme lengths at times
(12:40):
not to rock the boat versusstanding up for truth.
So if you find yourself at arestaurant let's just give it a
scenario You're having, you'rebreaking bread with a fellow
brother or sister in Christ,okay, and, and both you guys,
both you brothers, are married.
Let's just say that.
(13:00):
And let's say the other dude.
And let's say the other dude atthis lunch, let's say he makes
a sexually explicit commentabout the waitress.
Okay, two dudes having lunch,both of you married, both of you
Christians.
He makes a comment about thewaitress, about her being hot or
(13:20):
something, right Now, usuallyin an effort not to disrupt the
friendship, what do we do?
We kind of laugh or comment asto kind of downplay or affirm
that we're in agreement.
Right, that's an option.
Or maybe change the subject,okay, and you move to a
(13:41):
different conversation to get toa ground where you feel
comfortable.
The point I'm making here isthere's one option that takes
prudence and boldness.
If you're going to be adisciple of Christ, and that
option is not comfortable, youhave to address the comment head
on.
Then you got to do it gentlyand with love, and I do just
(14:06):
remind them of the covenant ofmarriage and what that means to
you and where you are, and youcan't support their actions.
Ok, at that moment you becomethe sign that reminds them of
how to get back on the rightpath.
At that moment you are thewelcome to Tennessee.
Oh, wait, a minute, I shouldn'tbe doing that.
(14:26):
Now here's a problem.
This is bold, this is risky,and it's absolutely true that
it's bold and risky.
But it takes that level ofprudence to ensure that margin
that we, that we build the rightmargin in our life of prudence,
to ensure that margin, that webuild the right margin in our
life and that we're spendingtime on the path that God
desires and that company that wehave around us will help us
grow closer to him.
(14:47):
Because no one ever thinks thatwakes up and says, you know
what, today's the day I'm goingto get on the wrong path, right,
and I'm just going to rest andjust do some morally terrible
things.
No, no one ever thinks that.
It's just, it's ridiculous.
The same way, you don't wake upsay today's the day I'm going
to ruin my marriage, today's theday I'm going to ruin my
relationship with my kids.
No, but that's what happens.
(15:10):
But if we keep adequate marginin our life to look around, to
assess, to adjust our lives andensure that we're staying in
lockstep to what God's callingus to do, that's so important.
Now here's a quick litmus testfor you, and I dare you to do
this Check to see who the lastthree text messages in your
(15:32):
phone are to.
Now, and I don't even care whatthe messages say, here's what I
want you to think about Dothose three people pull you
closer to God or push youfurther away?
Okay, I'm not and I'm not.
This is not judging here, butare they pulling you closer to
God or pushing you further away?
If further away is the answer,what can you?
(15:52):
What steps can you take toexercise more biblical prudence
in your walk, to engage withmore fellow brothers and sisters
in Christ that are going toencourage you Right?
So go through, take that testand see what shows up.
And I'm telling you, fellas, wehave to make sure that we
notice the welcome signs thatGod's put us, that God's put in
(16:14):
place in our life, and we and wesee those welcome signs most
efficiently and most effectivelywhen we are keeping the right
company.
It's so important.
I had a guy ask me the other dayhe's like man, I'm just trying
to figure out life.
And he's trying to figure out,he's just finishing school, he
doesn't know what to do.
And I just asked him what typeof guys are speaking into your
life right now?
Who are you spending your timewith?
He was telling me that it was adumpster fire.
(16:35):
I'm like bro, you're expectingto grow and look who's
constantly pulling you down?
Create the margin, get aroundthe right people.
All right, guys, we'll take ourlast break, we'll be right back
and we're going to try to giveyou some insights on how to
create and maintain that margin.
We'll be right back.
(16:57):
When I reflect on the kind ofthings that the men who
participated in our discipleshipmasterminds had in the past, I
am overwhelmed by the quality oftheir comments and commitment
to each other.
Several of the guys commentedthat this was the most
(17:17):
meaningful leadership experiencethey've encountered, and we
even had one man log into adiscipleship mastermind while a
hurricane was hitting his house.
He was that committed andreceived that much from his peer
group that he didn't want tomiss it.
Because of this extraordinarycommitment and because it's a
true gift and pleasure, we madethem a core part of our
(17:38):
community and we hope you mightjoin us.
We sit up men with their ownpeer advisory group of seven
individuals that meet everyother week for 12 weeks.
Each member shares areas theywant to focus on, such as
improving their prayer life,being more intentional with
their wives or maybe shedding afew extra pounds.
(18:00):
Together, we help themstrategize, make commitments,
find accountability and learn.
It's been our experience thatmost guys want a community of
trustworthy men to share theirideas and create support for
each other with, and it's beenour experience that most men
don't either create this forthemselves or seek them out.
(18:23):
So we do this because we wantyou to have that in your life,
and all that is needed to beginwinning is you.
If this sounds interesting,check out our community to see
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Visit thelionwithinus to startyour free trial of our community
(18:46):
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That's thelionwithinus, and Iwould love to see you lean in
and tap into the power of ourdiscipleship masterminds.
All right, fellas.
Now we talked about why marginis so important in our life.
I know this is a big topic,it's a big deal, it's kind of
heavy.
We talked also the consequencesof no margin.
We will unpack that in Proverbs.
(19:08):
Now we're going to look at whywe should create it and maintain
it.
In Proverbs 21, 5 says the planof the diligent leads surely to
abundance, but everyone who ishasty comes only to poverty.
Okay, now, if you're like me,every once in a while you get
(19:30):
tempted by hearing about somelike a hot stop.
You know pick or like someimmediate reward.
You know like I got to do that.
You know pick or like someimmediate reward.
You know like I got to do that.
But Proverbs gives us a warningabout being so hasty and it
reminds us that it leads oftento poverty, not wealth, and that
(19:51):
the avenue towards truly greatdecision making isn't short term
but long term.
And that requires marginbetween instinct and behavior,
because margin never happenswithout intentional effort,
because Proverbs is saying like,look, it's going to take some
diligence here to plan thisstuff out, to make sure you're
(20:12):
successful.
And this leads to the questionof how to execute at this level
of planning to yield anabundance.
And I'll start thinking aboutthat and examining that,
reflecting on that, and I wantto give you a couple, just a
couple practical ways that youcan incorporate immediately to
(20:33):
see some, hopefully some goodresults.
The first is you got to set theright boundaries and you got to
let those boundaries align toGod's will for your life.
And that may sound restrictive,I don't want boundaries because
it's too restrictive, bro, Ican't help you Because they
produce the opposite result.
It's not restrictive.
Boundaries provide security andset of guidelines that are
(20:54):
predetermined to aid in properdecision making for the right
moment.
Boundaries take the pressureaway from feeling that we must
please everyone, because when aboundary is known, it becomes
easier to follow, even when thesteps are out of line.
When a boundary is in place, ithelps us to see when corrective
action lies need to be taken.
So if you have the rightboundary set up and things come
(21:17):
across your plate that you knowdo not align to what God's
called you to do, you can justeither say no, that's a quick
yes, no, it's binary, boom, gotit.
Second thing to do will be toaudit your calendar.
Audit, take the time to seewhere your priorities and your
(21:38):
tasks align.
Now, if you choose to take apriority-driven, if you choose
to really focus on thatpriority-driven approach to
manage your time, you have to becareful that you're not that
you're not when you're doingthat, because you slip into task
management mode and you findyourself checking boxes.
Right, You're just checkingboxes, you got to do this, got
(22:00):
to do this, got to do this.
But when the attention shiftsfrom a task to a priority-driven
approach, right, what happensis when the things pop on your
calendar, we know that they'rewhat matter most.
So here's an easy way to thinkabout this Look at your calendar
(22:21):
and think through the last Idon't know 60 days.
If you're growing as a discipleof Christ, if that is a
priority and you know that'sgoing to be a big deal.
How does that manifest in theplans you take for today?
What shows on my calendarshowing me growing with Christ?
Like, where am I seeing Biblestudy time?
(22:42):
Where am I seeing prayer grouptime?
Where am I seeing, you know,personal devotion time?
Where do you see those things?
Because when you start doing aself audit there, with the focus
on the truth, you can reallysee some immediate areas of
impact and find that margin.
Okay, now the last item toconsider.
So we're kind of we're walkingthrough the boundaries, doing a
(23:06):
self audit.
The third one would be learninghow to utilize the power of one
small word.
And it's no, because I'mtelling you, if the devil can't
make you bad, he's going to makeyou busy.
We know that, and that may geta lot of amens on Sunday morning
, but how often does that driveus into taking action?
No is in itself a completesentence and we should learn to
(23:32):
use it.
And the problem is I get it.
I'm the same way.
I like to please people, I wantto serve, and we find ourselves
committing to items that youshould probably let pass by FOMO
, fear of missing out or YOLO.
You only live once.
All those are great hashtags.
They're terribledecision-making.
They just are.
They're terrible guidelines tomake decisions.
(23:58):
Learning how to say no to thethings that are not in alignment
with God's will is a sign ofgrowth as a disciple.
And also, if you learn how tosay no, it gives you the chance
to say yes to the things thattruly matter.
So I'm telling you thatexercising the muscle of no is a
great and purposeful,intentional way to construct
margin in your life, because, atthe end of the day, we have to
(24:19):
recognize fellas.
Margin is necessary If you wantto grow as a disciple.
It's necessary Because thedemands of the world are not
going to get any easier.
It's going to push on you.
It's going to push on youharder and harder and we have to
remain grounded in God's truth.
It's a great way, when we dothat, to create the margin that
(24:42):
we need to be the leaders thathe intends.
So again, with the question wetalked about all week, is what's
robbing the margin from yourlife?
And I'm just, I'm prayerfulthat again, these are just kind
of quick hitter episodes to kindof walk through, from a
scriptural standpoint, theseideas.
I'm hoping they give, they'regiving you some insights into
actions you can take today.
(25:03):
And look, if you want to talkabout this, if you want to have
conversations about margin, headover to our community.
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Click on offerings.
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(25:23):
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We are here to disciple leaders.
That's it.
We are helping you grow to bethe leader that God intends you
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You need some guys in yourcorner.
(25:44):
You need some fellow brothersin Christ who will come
alongside of you.
They're going to push you alittle bit.
They're going to encourage youas well.
They're going to help you stayfocused on what truly matters
most.
So the lionwithinus is how youget connected with us.
You can check out all our freeresources, but I encourage you
to hop over there to offeringsand see the different ways you
(26:05):
can jump in, and I would justchallenge you start your 30-day
trial of our LionWithinuscommunity to get started.
All right, guys, look, come onback on Friday.
We'll have a good fun Fridayepisode with some health, wealth
, self tips, all the fun Fridaydad jokes, all the stuff we do
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Give us a rating and review.
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All right, you guys, have agreat day, get after it.
We'll see you on Friday andremember to keep unleashing the
lion within.
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
intends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, it's me time, let's get into it, okay.
So the scripture of the weekthis week, luke 10, verse 41 to
42,.
It says Martha, martha, theLord answered you are worried
and upset about many things, butfew are needed, or indeed,
(00:23):
indeed, only one.
Mary has chosen which is betterand it will not be taken away
from her.
So the whole idea this week,guys, we're unpacking, is why
margin is important in our life,and I know this topic is
relevant because I talked to somany guys and the average
schedule is mindblowing.
(00:44):
Days are planned out down tothe minute, right, often months
in advance.
We have reminders andnotifications always popping up.
Okay, here's the next thingthat needs your attention.
Here's the next thing thatneeds your attention.
Don't forget this one.
And then, before you know it,your life flies by in a constant
state of reaction, and thatscares the crap out of me.
(01:05):
Scripture suggests that havingsome margin in our life for the
holy interruptions that comeacross our path are needed.
It's a reprieve from the worldof chaos we live in and I just
want to just take a dive intoGod's word and study this
together and think about this.
(01:28):
And again, this is a Bible study.
That's on the Bible app forYouVersion.
So, if you're on YouVersion, gocheck out our page.
Go to thelinewiththemus, checkon free tools, check out the
Bible studies.
We have tons and tons of Biblestudies out there and we even do
Bible studies together on theBible app.
So you can friend me, we canconnect there on the Bible app
(01:51):
and as we kick off these studiestogether, we can engage and
have comments and back and forth.
It's just a fun time.
So, again, thelinewithinus,click on those free tools, down
to the Bible studies and getstarted.
All right, now we're going tostart out this.
Today we're almost going to readthe scripture of the week this
week again, 41 to 42, but weneed a little more context.
(02:13):
Context is always good.
So let's look at Luke 10,starting at 38, 38 through 42.
And it says now, as they weretraveling along, he entered a
village and a woman named Marthawelcomed him into her home.
She had a sister called Marywho was seated at the Lord's
feet listening to his word, butMartha was distracted with all
her preparations.
And she came up to him and saidLord, lord, do you not care
(02:35):
that my sister has left me to doall the serving alone?
Then tell her to help me, thenwe get the Scripture of the Week
.
But the Lord answered and saidto her Martha, martha, you're
worried and bothered about somany things, but only one thing
is necessary, for Mary haschosen a good part, which is
what shall we not, what shallnot be taken away from her?
So again, big margin deficiency, big margin deficiency.
(03:00):
Out there, every generation Idon't know anybody I've talked
to that says you know, I got somuch free time.
It's generation I don't knowanybody I've talked to that says
you know, I've got so much freetime, I don't even know what to
do with it.
That comment doesn't existbecause we jam our schedules so
tight.
And a prudent way to look atthis is to see if the same
(03:24):
behavior was, was existing inJesus' ministry.
And it wasn't right.
Jesus was no, he had plenty ofmargin right.
And what's comical is thatMartha often, often, gets a bad
rap.
She does Uh, cause, cause.
Essentially, she was told tostop for a minute.
(03:46):
Be where your feet are, martha.
But when I think about it, shewas responding to the greatest
guest that would ever come toher home.
And I get the response.
And you know what?
It's the flatter bone begetting ready.
And I totally get it.
(04:10):
But let's say you had a contestthat you entered, okay.
And let's say you received acall that you won this contest
and the winning of this contestwas the person who you love the
most, like the biggest celebrityfan, whoever that may be,
they're going to be at yourhouse, come to your home, but
(04:32):
here's the caveat they're goingto be there in two hours.
How would you spend that timewaiting?
Okay, now for me, I know what'sgoing to happen If that happens
boom, I'm rocking, like we'regoing in cleaning mode like
never before.
We're going to get ready.
It's going to be awesome andI'm going to do all I can to
prepare so that, when theyarrive, I can just enjoy that
(04:55):
time.
And I get it.
Okay, and the buzz, theexcitement, I mean all the stuff
.
I can imagine Martha juststuffing the drawers and the
closets, just right, just clean,clean, clean, put it up Right.
And because she's trying toconceal the reality of her
circumstances, which is justlife, and we put a smile on our
(05:18):
face.
We finished that flight and wethe funny part is, we even
welcome a guest in after we doit.
And what do we first?
First thing we say, oh, justexcuse the mess, not like, come
on now, seriously, bro.
So I get it.
This it's real.
And martha had a really goodreason to fully engage this
cleaning because, let's face it,the messiah was in her living
(05:40):
room.
I mean, come on, okay on, Idon't care how cool, you are the
biggest celebrity that you know.
Nobody as important as Jesus hasever entered your living room
and, just like Jesus does, intrue Jesus fashion, he teaches
Martha and through that he'steaching us why that margin is
(06:00):
so important and we must protectit and utilize it to taste what
he's trying to give us, becausehe was inviting Martha as well
into a beautiful moment whereshe could rest, reflect and
strengthen that relationship.
Mary had the margin and sheknew it.
She had energy, she hadreflection to prioritize and
learn.
(06:20):
That was important, right, andwe may think ourselves as
learners, but Mary shows us thatbeing a learner is impossible
if we don't have the margin tocreate the space to learn.
Does that make sense?
So Jesus is just showing usright here that if we don't have
that margin, that we findourselves chasing the calendar
(06:43):
and the priorities and all thethings that are predetermined
right.
They limit our ability toidentify what opportunities when
the opportunities come acrossthe place where God desires to
soak into us.
And I've had to really wrestlewith this.
But Mary's not lazy, she's not.
She was intentional and I thinkthat's so important to remember
(07:06):
to not paint these people whoare prioritizing margin as being
lazy.
If he were to enter my hometoday, I hope I would have the
wherewithal and the margin tostop, to be still and just be
with him right where I'm at andnot worry about all the things
(07:29):
that are happening.
My personality says I probablywould struggle with that, just
to be honest, but I'm trying tofight and to think through how
can I be more intentional inthis area?
All right, so look, guys, we'lltake our first break, we'll
come back and we're going totalk about the consequences of
no margin.
We'll be right back.
(07:54):
I don't know about you, but Iused to find Mondays really
rough.
I would find myself trying toreset for work, trying to get my
bearing on the family calendar,trying to find time for my own
spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself
overwhelmed or just flatlyignoring aspects of my life that
I know are meaningful to me.
What I learned was that if Ihad immediate access to
(08:17):
important and impactfulspiritual topics and reflections
to start my week well, afterthe allure of a Sunday sermon
has passed, I would set my wholeweek up to be more meaningful
and for the opportunity to makea true impact.
If you think that getting such aboost would help your week to
get started on the right foot,we would love for you to sign up
(08:39):
for the weekly roar, which isour newsletter that is produced
by the lion within us.
Each week will deliver apowerful reflection and
practical steps to help youapply scripture with clarity and
purpose, all being rooted inlight and truth.
So so, in just a few minutes,we hope to arm you with insights
(09:02):
for living out biblicalleadership with confidence and
strength, and maybe even have alittle extra bounce in your step
.
If that sounds useful, headover to thelionwithinus slash
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That's thelionwithinus slashROAR to sign up today.
That's the lion within dot U Sslash R O A?
R to get your weekly ROAR today.
(09:25):
All right, guys welcome back.
So, again, we just opened up.
We've talked about why we needthat margin in our life, okay,
so that's super important toknow.
Now we need to talk about theconsequences.
So what happens if we don'thave margin?
And Proverbs 21, 16 sayswhoever strays from the path of
prudence comes to rest in thecompany of the departing.
(09:45):
And prudent is a word that mostpeople are familiar with, but
connecting prudence with ourdaily walk is challenging,
because prudent means beingcareful about our choices.
That means we have to stop, wehave to think before we act.
Right, it's not just knee-jerkreactions, no, we're being
prudent here.
And in the context of thisverse, it appears that a failure
(10:07):
to be prudent over ourschedules not only robs us from
marching guys, but it increasesthe propensity to lose our way.
And that is super, super, it'sscary.
And that that is super, super,that's scary.
And there's in the high-techworld today.
Think about this for a second.
Nobody's ever lost anymore,right, they're?
(10:28):
They're not.
Now.
If you were to be able to get aborrow bar our buddy marty
mcfly's delorean right and headback to the 90s, you would find
that going on a trip.
It required something, okay, itrequired planning, it required
maps, it required this thingcalled atlases, and getting lost
was easy to do because thenavigation was done in the
(10:50):
moment Right, and the moreprudent the navigator, the
higher probability of landing atyour destination.
No, I mean, it happens to meand my wife all the time when,
when, for some reason, she'll,hey, you should have turned back
there, I'm like, well, youshould have told me for soon.
But anyway, that's a wholenother story.
But then I remember a trip,though there was a trip that
comes to mind, this is a funnyone.
It was a motorcycle trip.
(11:11):
We were headed to Cherokee.
It was awesome.
Me was, my dad lost his way andall of a sudden we were riding
coming from virginia to cherokeeokay, and that's in north
carolina and all of a sudden weget a sign.
And it was at night, and we hita sign that said welcome to
(11:35):
tennessee.
I'm like uh-oh.
And then at that moment we werealized we had wandered off the
desired path.
Right Now we had to do a littlecourse correction, a little bit
of jabbing, a little bit ofhazing, but we redirected and we
were able to have a really goodtime of fellowship and spend
that time in the Great SmokyMountains.
But the sign right, thatwelcome sign that we saw welcome
(11:57):
to Tennessee was a moment ofclarity for us Because it
clearly showed us that weweren't in the right, where we
were supposed to be.
And it made me think.
How often do we miss the signs,simply because there's not
enough margin in our lives tolook up?
Or perhaps even worse, thesigns that we should see are not
(12:18):
visible at all because of thecompany that we're surrounding
ourselves with.
They're an obstruction to thatsign.
I'm telling you this is a bigdeal, because the world we live
in really what happens?
We have to be careful, becausewe start relaxing our morals,
our virtues, our values and wego to extreme lengths at times
(12:40):
not to rock the boat versusstanding up for truth.
So if you find yourself at arestaurant let's just give it a
scenario You're having, you'rebreaking bread with a fellow
brother or sister in Christ,okay, and, and both you guys,
both you brothers, are married.
Let's just say that.
(13:00):
And let's say the other dude.
And let's say the other dude atthis lunch, let's say he makes
a sexually explicit commentabout the waitress.
Okay, two dudes having lunch,both of you married, both of you
Christians.
He makes a comment about thewaitress, about her being hot or
(13:20):
something, right Now, usuallyin an effort not to disrupt the
friendship, what do we do?
We kind of laugh or comment asto kind of downplay or affirm
that we're in agreement.
Right, that's an option.
Or maybe change the subject,okay, and you move to a
(13:41):
different conversation to get toa ground where you feel
comfortable.
The point I'm making here isthere's one option that takes
prudence and boldness.
If you're going to be adisciple of Christ, and that
option is not comfortable, youhave to address the comment head
on.
Then you got to do it gentlyand with love, and I do just
(14:06):
remind them of the covenant ofmarriage and what that means to
you and where you are, and youcan't support their actions.
Ok, at that moment you becomethe sign that reminds them of
how to get back on the rightpath.
At that moment you are thewelcome to Tennessee.
Oh, wait, a minute, I shouldn'tbe doing that.
(14:26):
Now here's a problem.
This is bold, this is risky,and it's absolutely true that
it's bold and risky.
But it takes that level ofprudence to ensure that margin
that we, that we build the rightmargin in our life of prudence,
to ensure that margin, that webuild the right margin in our
life and that we're spendingtime on the path that God
desires and that company that wehave around us will help us
grow closer to him.
(14:47):
Because no one ever thinks thatwakes up and says, you know
what, today's the day I'm goingto get on the wrong path, right,
and I'm just going to rest andjust do some morally terrible
things.
No, no one ever thinks that.
It's just, it's ridiculous.
The same way, you don't wake upsay today's the day I'm going
to ruin my marriage, today's theday I'm going to ruin my
relationship with my kids.
No, but that's what happens.
(15:10):
But if we keep adequate marginin our life to look around, to
assess, to adjust our lives andensure that we're staying in
lockstep to what God's callingus to do, that's so important.
Now here's a quick litmus testfor you, and I dare you to do
this Check to see who the lastthree text messages in your
(15:32):
phone are to.
Now, and I don't even care whatthe messages say, here's what I
want you to think about Dothose three people pull you
closer to God or push youfurther away?
Okay, I'm not and I'm not.
This is not judging here, butare they pulling you closer to
God or pushing you further away?
If further away is the answer,what can you?
(15:52):
What steps can you take toexercise more biblical prudence
in your walk, to engage withmore fellow brothers and sisters
in Christ that are going toencourage you Right?
So go through, take that testand see what shows up.
And I'm telling you, fellas, wehave to make sure that we
notice the welcome signs thatGod's put us, that God's put in
(16:14):
place in our life, and we and wesee those welcome signs most
efficiently and most effectivelywhen we are keeping the right
company.
It's so important.
I had a guy ask me the other dayhe's like man, I'm just trying
to figure out life.
And he's trying to figure out,he's just finishing school, he
doesn't know what to do.
And I just asked him what typeof guys are speaking into your
life right now?
Who are you spending your timewith?
He was telling me that it was adumpster fire.
(16:35):
I'm like bro, you're expectingto grow and look who's
constantly pulling you down?
Create the margin, get aroundthe right people.
All right, guys, we'll take ourlast break, we'll be right back
and we're going to try to giveyou some insights on how to
create and maintain that margin.
We'll be right back.
(16:57):
When I reflect on the kind ofthings that the men who
participated in our discipleshipmasterminds had in the past, I
am overwhelmed by the quality oftheir comments and commitment
to each other.
Several of the guys commentedthat this was the most
(17:17):
meaningful leadership experiencethey've encountered, and we
even had one man log into adiscipleship mastermind while a
hurricane was hitting his house.
He was that committed andreceived that much from his peer
group that he didn't want tomiss it.
Because of this extraordinarycommitment and because it's a
true gift and pleasure, we madethem a core part of our
(17:38):
community and we hope you mightjoin us.
We sit up men with their ownpeer advisory group of seven
individuals that meet everyother week for 12 weeks.
Each member shares areas theywant to focus on, such as
improving their prayer life,being more intentional with
their wives or maybe shedding afew extra pounds.
(18:00):
Together, we help themstrategize, make commitments,
find accountability and learn.
It's been our experience thatmost guys want a community of
trustworthy men to share theirideas and create support for
each other with, and it's beenour experience that most men
don't either create this forthemselves or seek them out.
(18:23):
So we do this because we wantyou to have that in your life,
and all that is needed to beginwinning is you.
If this sounds interesting,check out our community to see
the dates and times of whenthese different groups meet.
Visit thelionwithinus to startyour free trial of our community
(18:46):
.
To get started today.
That's thelionwithinus, and Iwould love to see you lean in
and tap into the power of ourdiscipleship masterminds.
All right, fellas.
Now we talked about why marginis so important in our life.
I know this is a big topic,it's a big deal, it's kind of
heavy.
We talked also the consequencesof no margin.
We will unpack that in Proverbs.
(19:08):
Now we're going to look at whywe should create it and maintain
it.
In Proverbs 21, 5 says the planof the diligent leads surely to
abundance, but everyone who ishasty comes only to poverty.
Okay, now, if you're like me,every once in a while you get
(19:30):
tempted by hearing about somelike a hot stop.
You know pick or like someimmediate reward.
You know like I got to do that.
You know pick or like someimmediate reward.
You know like I got to do that.
But Proverbs gives us a warningabout being so hasty and it
reminds us that it leads oftento poverty, not wealth, and that
(19:51):
the avenue towards truly greatdecision making isn't short term
but long term.
And that requires marginbetween instinct and behavior,
because margin never happenswithout intentional effort,
because Proverbs is saying like,look, it's going to take some
diligence here to plan thisstuff out, to make sure you're
(20:12):
successful.
And this leads to the questionof how to execute at this level
of planning to yield anabundance.
And I'll start thinking aboutthat and examining that,
reflecting on that, and I wantto give you a couple, just a
couple practical ways that youcan incorporate immediately to
(20:33):
see some, hopefully some goodresults.
The first is you got to set theright boundaries and you got to
let those boundaries align toGod's will for your life.
And that may sound restrictive,I don't want boundaries because
it's too restrictive, bro, Ican't help you Because they
produce the opposite result.
It's not restrictive.
Boundaries provide security andset of guidelines that are
(20:54):
predetermined to aid in properdecision making for the right
moment.
Boundaries take the pressureaway from feeling that we must
please everyone, because when aboundary is known, it becomes
easier to follow, even when thesteps are out of line.
When a boundary is in place, ithelps us to see when corrective
action lies need to be taken.
So if you have the rightboundary set up and things come
(21:17):
across your plate that you knowdo not align to what God's
called you to do, you can justeither say no, that's a quick
yes, no, it's binary, boom, gotit.
Second thing to do will be toaudit your calendar.
Audit, take the time to seewhere your priorities and your
(21:38):
tasks align.
Now, if you choose to take apriority-driven, if you choose
to really focus on thatpriority-driven approach to
manage your time, you have to becareful that you're not that
you're not when you're doingthat, because you slip into task
management mode and you findyourself checking boxes.
Right, You're just checkingboxes, you got to do this, got
(22:00):
to do this, got to do this.
But when the attention shiftsfrom a task to a priority-driven
approach, right, what happensis when the things pop on your
calendar, we know that they'rewhat matter most.
So here's an easy way to thinkabout this Look at your calendar
(22:21):
and think through the last Idon't know 60 days.
If you're growing as a discipleof Christ, if that is a
priority and you know that'sgoing to be a big deal.
How does that manifest in theplans you take for today?
What shows on my calendarshowing me growing with Christ?
Like, where am I seeing Biblestudy time?
(22:42):
Where am I seeing prayer grouptime?
Where am I seeing, you know,personal devotion time?
Where do you see those things?
Because when you start doing aself audit there, with the focus
on the truth, you can reallysee some immediate areas of
impact and find that margin.
Okay, now the last item toconsider.
So we're kind of we're walkingthrough the boundaries, doing a
(23:06):
self audit.
The third one would be learninghow to utilize the power of one
small word.
And it's no, because I'mtelling you, if the devil can't
make you bad, he's going to makeyou busy.
We know that, and that may geta lot of amens on Sunday morning
, but how often does that driveus into taking action?
No is in itself a completesentence and we should learn to
(23:32):
use it.
And the problem is I get it.
I'm the same way.
I like to please people, I wantto serve, and we find ourselves
committing to items that youshould probably let pass by FOMO
, fear of missing out or YOLO.
You only live once.
All those are great hashtags.
They're terribledecision-making.
They just are.
They're terrible guidelines tomake decisions.
(23:58):
Learning how to say no to thethings that are not in alignment
with God's will is a sign ofgrowth as a disciple.
And also, if you learn how tosay no, it gives you the chance
to say yes to the things thattruly matter.
So I'm telling you thatexercising the muscle of no is a
great and purposeful,intentional way to construct
margin in your life, because, atthe end of the day, we have to
(24:19):
recognize fellas.
Margin is necessary If you wantto grow as a disciple.
It's necessary Because thedemands of the world are not
going to get any easier.
It's going to push on you.
It's going to push on youharder and harder and we have to
remain grounded in God's truth.
It's a great way, when we dothat, to create the margin that
(24:42):
we need to be the leaders thathe intends.
So again, with the question wetalked about all week, is what's
robbing the margin from yourlife?
And I'm just, I'm prayerfulthat again, these are just kind
of quick hitter episodes to kindof walk through, from a
scriptural standpoint, theseideas.
I'm hoping they give, they'regiving you some insights into
actions you can take today.
(25:03):
And look, if you want to talkabout this, if you want to have
conversations about margin, headover to our community.
Again, the line within that US.
Click on offerings.
Join a community.
Again, thelinewithinus.
Click on offerings.
Join a community.
Because inside the community, wehave conversations, we have
engagements, we have masterminds, we have Friday forges.
(25:23):
We have opportunities for youto learn more on topics such as
this.
We are here to disciple leaders.
That's it.
We are helping you grow to bethe leader that God intends you
to be, and you need some help.
You need some guys in yourcorner.
(25:44):
You need some fellow brothersin Christ who will come
alongside of you.
They're going to push you alittle bit.
They're going to encourage youas well.
They're going to help you stayfocused on what truly matters
most.
So the lionwithinus is how youget connected with us.
You can check out all our freeresources, but I encourage you
to hop over there to offeringsand see the different ways you
(26:05):
can jump in, and I would justchallenge you start your 30-day
trial of our LionWithinuscommunity to get started.
All right, guys, look, come onback on Friday.
We'll have a good fun Fridayepisode with some health, wealth
, self tips, all the fun Fridaydad jokes, all the stuff we do
each and every week.
Give us a rating and review.
Also, at thelinewithinus, youcan click over to support and
(26:26):
then from there you can donateas well as you can sponsor
others to be part of ourcommunity.
So it's great ways to serve,it's great ways to help support
everything we're doing here atthe Lion Within Us as we
disciple leaders.
All right, you guys, have agreat day, get after it.
We'll see you on Friday andremember to keep unleashing the
lion within.
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