543. Discipleship 101 With Pastor Trey Brunson

Did you know roughly 20% of men report having no friends at all, while 50% avoid discussing anything meaningful with the few connections they have?We're diving deep into the critical epidemic affecting Christian men today—isolation, shame, and the transformative power of authentic discipleship. Pastor Trey Brunson of Church of Eleven 22 brings electrifying energy and profound wisdom as he unpacks their discipleship model that's changing lives in Jacksonville and beyond.

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Episode Transcript

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, guys, meat episodetime.
Let's get right into it, okay?
So the scripture of the weekthis week is in the back of
chapter 2, verse 14.
It says, for the earth will befilled with the knowledge of the
glory of the Lord as the waterscover the sea.
So, guys, go back If you wantto know how to simplify and

(00:26):
apply that verse to your life.
The last podcast in your podcastfeed is our spiritual kickoff
episode.
Listen to that.
I'll try to take some time tounpack that at length, just to
give you some insights.
And again, if you like thespiritual kickoffs and I know
you guys do check it out Mondaythrough Friday within the Lion
Withinist community.
Monday through Friday withinthe Lion Within us community,

(00:46):
this is exclusive content withinour community.
Go to thelionwithinus, getstarted.
It's a super easy way to getplugged in, to get content, to
get extra, that extra littleboost that you need, a whole lot
better than anything you everget from Starbucks.
Guys, I promise you that andyou can check this out If you
can't make it live.
The videos are there exclusivefor you, inside the inside the
community.
You pull it up, press play andit's right there.

(01:10):
How about that?
All right, guys.
So look, this is going to be afun one.
Now you talk about a guy thathas a lot of energy.
I thought I had a lot of energy.
I met Pastor Trey Brunson.
He is awesome.
He is the pastor of ministry atthe San Pablo campus, pastor at
the Church of 1122.
He works alongside with PastorJoby, pastor Ryan you guys know

(01:31):
we've had them on the showbefore Joby several times Pastor
Ryan Britt once they're out ofJacksonville, florida.
He also he talks about this inan episode.
He was the executive producerof a 2019 film that some of you
guys may have seen before.
It's called Run the Race.
So he's got definitely just awonderful background.
From Dallas Baptist University.

(01:52):
He's currently finished up hisschooling at Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
He's served on several churchstaffs.
He talks about all that stuff.
He's got an amazing wife.
He's got five kids, fellas.
I mean it's just incrediblestuff that he has going on Love,
his energy and we're going totalk specifically about
discipleship and what does thatlook like practically for you as

(02:16):
a man, I'll tell you, he hitsit.
He hits it head on.
He gives us some really goodadvice, he gives us good
insights and he challenges us.
That's why you're listening tothe Lion Within Us.
You want to be challenged.
So sit back and enjoy thisconversation with my friend,
pastor Trey Brunson.
Well, pastor Trey, welcome tothe Lion Within Us.

(02:36):
How are you?

Pastor Trey Brunson (02:36):
doing today I'm doing great man.
It's an honor to get to be here.
I'm so thankful for you andwhat you do, man, to equip men
to make disciples and makedisciples.

Chris Grainger (02:45):
That's it, bro.
That's it.
So you're the third 1122, man.
So I worked with Joby, withPastor Britt, and now you and I
just like the hits keep oncoming, brother.

Pastor Trey Brunson (02:56):
I apologize .
It's a steep drop off fromthose two to me, so you know.

Chris Grainger (03:01):
Oh no.

Pastor Trey Brunson (03:01):
This is the first 1122 person you're
experiencing.
And listen to those two guys.

Chris Grainger (03:06):
No, no, no, no, I don't believe I've.
I've heard you on on thepodcast too, so you're doing
some great stuff out there.
So give us a fun fact about youthat maybe not many people know
about Pastor Trey.

Pastor Trey Brunson (03:17):
Yeah, I'll give you two, Uh one.
I'm the father of five kids andwe talked about this last time
we were chatting and uh, and Ithink that is one of the
greatest joys in my life I'vegot three boys and two girls is
seeing them grow up and thrivein the things God made them do.
And then the second thing is mybest friend and I made a movie
that came out in theaters in2019 called Run the Race.

(03:39):
So I've had the joy of gettingto put my life on the line for
the kingdom of God in a few ways, one of them making a
faith-based film.

Chris Grainger (03:48):
Tell us a little bit about that movie before we
go any further, because some ofour listeners may not have heard
about that before.
I wanted to just give you aspot to at least share a little
bit there.

Pastor Trey Brunson (03:55):
Sure, I met my best friend, jake, in
college, at Dallas BaptistUniversity back in 2004.
We really just connected asfriends right off the bat and he
was telling me about a storyand it really is a true story
and how he thought it would makean incredible film.
And after he would tell me bitsand pieces of this story for

(04:18):
about a year and a half, Ifinally said I don't want to
hear you talk about it againuntil you start writing, because
it'll never be a film thatpeople see until there's a
script.
He did.
He went away for a weekend, gota hotel room, unplugged the TV
out of that hotel room and hecame back with 200 pages of a
script.
And so that was 2008.

(04:39):
And from 2008 until 2014, wewere just trying to figure out
how do you take a script?
Like, you know your book.
I'm reading through your bookright now.
You got this thing and now whatdo I do with it?
What's the next step?
Well, sometimes it's easier anda little more obvious, like
with a book let's get it to apublisher or let's self-publish,
let's just get it in front ofpeople.

(04:59):
With a movie script, it's notso obvious, like there's tons of
people who write movie scriptsthat never get made, and so we
just leveraged everythingpossible.
I used to be on staff at FirstBaptist Jacksonville and we
would do these men's ministryevents and you know every guy
that would come in.
That was kind of nationallyknown.
I would just leverage that asan opportunity to talk about hey

(05:20):
, I got a movie script.
Do you know anybody in theindustry we should talk to?
Eventually, it just hit me.
I was shopping At First Baptist.
We used to host the Gator BowlBreakfast, which is Gator Bowls
here in Jacksonville.
Tim Tebow's brother, robbie,was the head of FCA Northeast
Florida.
Then we were shopping forsupplies for the Gator Bowl

(05:42):
Breakfast.
I just said, hey, man, have Itold you about the movie that my
best friend and I are workingon?
And he said no, and so I gavehim the elevator pitch.
Run the Race is a story of twobrothers.
They grow up in this small town.
Their mom died of cancer whenthey were young.
Their dad is a runaway drunk.
They're raised by the olderlady who lives across the street

(06:03):
from them.
They're just by the older ladywho lives across the street from
them.
They're just trying to get outof this small town.
And what you see in the story ishow the older brother is a
believer and the younger brotheris not.
And it makes a ton of sensebecause of all that he's been
through and you see how theolder brother loves the younger
brother and leads him to theLord through some pretty intense
situations that happened tothem.

(06:24):
And so, as I'm telling thatstory to Robbie, we're standing
in Publix and he just startscrying and I think there was
this connection he had as TimTebow's older brother with like
I love my brother so much and Iwould do anything for him.
And he said we have to tellTimmy about this.
So we fly out to Los Angelesthis is when he's training out

(06:45):
there with whatever that guy wasbefore he went to play for the
Eagles.
And we just tell him the story.
And Tim, I remember he's such agiant he's sitting at this
conference table with all of hislawyers.
It was a very intimidatingmeeting and he's getting.
He's rocking in his chair andhe's just getting pumped as my
friend Jake is telling him thisstory.
And he said I'm all in.
What do we have to do now?

(07:06):
How do we make this happen?
And God brought a couple ofother people to the table and we
raised the money we had toraise to make the film and
started shooting in 2017 into2018.
And then it's all editing andmarketing and you got to raise
money to market a film and itcame out in theaters in February

(07:27):
of 2019, man.

Chris Grainger (07:29):
That's awesome.

Pastor Trey Brunson (07:30):
And what's crazy, chris, is I got a text
message last night from a friendwho apparently had just seen
the movie last night and waslike you didn't tell me this was
going to happen in the movie.
I love that something that Godput on our hearts in 2004 is
still, in 2025, impacting liveswith the hope of Jesus.

(07:51):
Just the beauty of writing abook, of making a movie, of
putting something out there thatGod's called you into, is you
have no clue how that willresonate long beyond your
timeframe for it and pointpeople to Jesus.

Chris Grainger (08:07):
I was going to ask you too, because you know we
do a book of the week each eachweek at the Lion Within Us, and
I saw the Run the Race Biblestudy.
So you guys put that together,so that goes along.
Does that kind of accompany it?
Yeah?

Pastor Trey Brunson (08:18):
yeah, I wrote that just trying to think
through.
Like there are some prettyheavy moments in that movie,
some.
We wanted it to be an honeststory and you know you kind of
hear this from time to time.
Um, charles martin, he's theauthor, he's a live and 22er
charles been on the pod.
He's been on the pod, yeah whata stud yeah um, he had a book

(08:38):
called the mountain between usthat was turned into a film.
Okay, his kind of story withthat was he didn't see the
script until the week the filmwas coming out and it was not
his story.
They changed his storydramatically and he's been very
reluctant to turn any of hisstories into films since then
because of that.
He's now got a guy that he'screated a partnership with and

(09:02):
they're working on turning theKeeper series the Water Keeper,
letter Keeper, record Keeper andhe just released the Keeper,
the fourth book in that series.
They're going to turn that intoeither a streaming series or a
film series.
But he's 100% spot on Like, ifit matters to you, if it's

(09:22):
important, you have to fight forit to stay in your film.
And there were things that wefought for and we fought for
them because we didn't want thegospel message that was heard to
be trust in Jesus andeverything gets better for you,
because that's not true.
Sometimes you trust in Jesusand your finances don't
straighten out, or your marriagedoesn't work out, or your
marriage doesn't work out, or wewanted it to be true to life

(09:44):
that when you trust in Jesus,you get Jesus.
Who's better than life, not, asPastor Joby says, a lot cotton,
candy and Cadillacs.

Chris Grainger (09:51):
That's right.

Pastor Trey Brunson (09:53):
And sometimes that does happen.
Sometimes you trust in Jesus.
I love the Kendrick brothersand your marriage does get
reconciled, your children docome home, things do turn around
for you.
We just wanted to be honest.
That shouldn't be what you'reafter.
God change, make everythingbetter in my life and I'll trust
in you.
It should be that you're betterthan my life and, no matter
what happens, I get you and youare the abundant life.

(10:15):
And so we fought to keep thatin the film.
And so, knowing there's a pointin that movie that a lot of
people it's all like, oh my gosh, I didn't see this coming Part
of that we wrote that curriculumas a like great Bible study
that you could go through.
That would help you to likeprocess.
What is the gospel?
What does it mean when my lifeis hard?
After I've trusted in Jesus andliterally Chris, what I did was

(10:37):
I just took characters in theBible like Joseph.
I mean, did God give Joseph thedream or not?

Chris Grainger (10:44):
Amen Absolutely.

Pastor Trey Brunson (10:52):
And he got thrown in a pit, and he got
thrown into prison and he wasforgotten and all of these
things.
And yet God had a trajectoryfor his life that was greater
than he could have ever imagined.
All of those moments matteredto get there.

Chris Grainger (11:00):
Right A hundred percent.

Pastor Trey Brunson (11:02):
Yeah, man, we wrote that curriculum to try
and help people understand thegospel and walk out gospel
implications in their life.

Chris Grainger (11:10):
That's so cool.
I'm getting a copy of it, guys.
That's going to be our book ofthe week Spoiler alert for you
guys who are listening on Friday.
So that's it.
We're going to promote that.
So I'm super pumped just toyour energy for one, pastor Trey
.
That's when we first met.
I'm like this guy's let's go,that's it.

Pastor Trey Brunson (11:25):
Performance enhancing drugs man.

Chris Grainger (11:31):
I know we're going to dive into the
discipleship journey, what thatworks, how that works at 1122.
Because our listeners, we talkabout you guys all the time but
I'd love to know more about you,your personal discipleship
journey, a little bit of yourbackground, so share that with
our listeners.

Pastor Trey Brunson (11:47):
Yeah Well, my dad is a pastor.
He's still preaching.
He's the pastor of church inBirmingham called Valleydale
church, and crushing it, I meanI.
I guess I'm at that point,chris, in my life where a lot of
my friends are losing theirdads and their dads are passing
away for whatever reason, and Idon't take it for granted that I
can pick up the phone and justcall my dad.

(12:07):
I spoke to a group of widows onSunday evening this week and
they asked me to speak on prayerbecause they said we all prayed
for our husbands and they died.
Would you help us?
And how can we trust God whenwe pray?
And I called my dad on Saturdayand I said hey dad, what'd you
up to?
And how can we trust God whenwe pray?
And I called my dad on Saturdayand I said hey dad, what are
you up to?
My dad was headed to officiatea funeral and I said quick, I

(12:31):
just want to know.
Here's what I think I'm goingto say.
What would you say?
How would you help?
And I remember when I said Ilove you, talked to you later
and hung up the phone thinkinglike man, what a blessing I've
got one of the world's best dadsand I'm just thankful for every
moment that I've had with him.
A lot of pastor's kids grow upand they hate the church.
I love it.
I've given my life to thechurch man.

(12:53):
So I grew up with a dad who wasa pastor.
We moved pretty regularly.
I was born in Greenwood, southCarolina.
My dad was in seminary at thatpoint at Southwestern Seminary
in Fort Worth, texas.
He went to his first church inChesapeake, virginia.
Wow, yeah, we were there forseven years, left there and went
to High Point, north Carolina.
We were there for seven years,left there and went to Dallas,

(13:15):
texas.
We were there for seven yearsand then we came to Jacksonville
, florida, and he was a pastorhere for 13 years.
I was here for almost 10.
I left and planted a church inBurbank, california, and left
there and went to seminary atSouthern Seminary in Louisville,
kentucky, and was a pastor onstaff at Southeast Christian

(13:37):
Church and during COVID, woundup on a Zoom call with Pastor
Joby and he said, hey, man, anychance you'd want to come home
and we came back in 2020.
I've been on staff here foralmost five years, five years
full of joy, man.
So I have grown up in andaround ministry.
By God's grace, I have notgrown bitter towards ministry,

(14:03):
but just fallen in love with thebride of Christ and the joy of
getting to be a disciple.
I am a disciple.
I get to make disciples, by Hisgrace.

Chris Grainger (14:10):
That's awesome.
So Southeastern.
I'm trying to remembercorrectly that's Al Mohler.
Is he out there Other?

Pastor Trey Brunson (14:15):
seminaries Al Mohler.

Chris Grainger (14:16):
And Southeastern .

Pastor Trey Brunson (14:17):
Christian was Bob Russell and then Dave
Stone and now Kyle Eidelman.

Chris Grainger (14:21):
Okay, yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome, Great stuff.
So what do you do at 1122?
I'm sure you have many hatsthat you're wearing there.

Pastor Trey Brunson (14:30):
I do.
I have a few hats.
I am the campus pastor at ourSan Pablo campus, which is our
broadcast campus, so PastorJoby's here, preaches from here,
so I do a lot of things withand for him to help him.
He's the best man, you know.
It's such a joy that he was agood friend.
But then to come and work for agreat boss and one of the best

(14:54):
preacher and pastors I've everbeen around, I couldn't ask for
a better guy to look up to andto get to serve alongside and
serve.
It's a joy for me.
I also help oversee discipleshipfor us centrally and I help
oversee all of our multi-siteand campuses with another campus
pastor.
We kind of oversee campuspastors and staff and it's the
old job description, it's thelast bullet point of all other

(15:18):
duties as assigned by yoursupervisor.
It's a big bucket for me andit's with joy.
I love it.
Um, having grown up aroundministry, there's a lot of
things that I just don't thinkabout and what I've had to do in
the last few years is figureout how do I take what can feel
uh, just natural instinct for meand how do I help, coach and

(15:38):
lead other people's to thinkingand seeing and doing those
things.

Chris Grainger (15:41):
Sure, absolutely Love it, love it.
Well, guys, we're going to takeour first break with Pastor
Trey.
We'll be right back.
I've got something big to share.
We're making a major shiftbecause we know the battle was
real and it's time more men hadaccess to the support they need.
For too long, guys have beentrying to carry the weight alone

(16:01):
pressure at work, tension athome, wounds from the past and a
world that demands strength butoffers no place to rest.
We see it, we've lived it, andthat's exactly why we built our
community.
It's a stronghold, a placewhere warriors can find rest,
truth and a band of brothersstanding beside them.
And starting now, we're makingit easier than ever to step in.

(16:23):
We've lowered the barrier tojust $15.99 a month.
That means, for less than thecost of a drive-thru lunch, you
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Inside you'll find access toour daily spiritual kickoffs
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, our Friday Forge Gatheringsall that and so much more.
Every man needs a stronghold,and you don't have to fight

(16:46):
alone.
If you've been waiting for theright time to jump in, this is
it.
Go to thelionwithinus and jointhe community and see for
yourself what happens when irontruly sharpens iron.
So, pastor Trey, I'm supercurious because you know, joby
and I have talked about this acouple of times in the past, but
it sounds like you're the guywho makes it happen.

(17:07):
So walk us through.
I came from the traditionalSouthern Baptist.
We had Sunday school, you know,and a Sunday school setting.
I'll just be.
I teach Sunday school now.
It's just different.
Basically I'm teaching to thegroup and it's very little
interaction.
The way Joby explained thegroups to me, it was very
different.
So I'd love to get yourinsights.

(17:28):
So what does it look like for anew member to 1122 when they're
walking through and Joby'stalking about?
You know you have to get into adiscipleship group.
What does that look like?
How does it work?
Just love to get your insightshere.

Pastor Trey Brunson (17:39):
Sure.
So you know, one of the thingsyou have to do and this is this
is like pretty acute for me.
We on Sunday, pastor Joby and Iare in the lobby after the nine
o'clock service, okay, okay,and two ladies are in the line
coming up.
Pastor Joby is one of the Idon't know guys who do this.
Pastor Joby will stand in thelobby as long as it takes to

(18:00):
pray for, talk to every personwho wants to speak to them, and
I try and stand right there andhelp, be like the.
Let me help you take whateverthat next step is, or help with
whatever that thing is thatGod's doing.
And these two ladies walk up.
One is a tall blonde and theothers are shorter.
She has black hair and shewon't look at us.
I mean, her head's down thewhole time and her friend says

(18:22):
this is so-and-so and she's beena Satanist since she was 14.
And today she trusted in Jesusand Chris.
She's like shaking and I get itPart of it.
I know that that moment I meanyou got to think this is not
just I trusted in Jesus.
This is like her entire life ischanging.

(18:42):
This is the majority of herlife.

Chris Grainger (18:44):
Her identity yeah.

Pastor Trey Brunson (18:45):
She began to share with us that she, her
dad, died when she was youngerand Satan was who she would talk
to at night and Satan told herthat she was his daughter.
I mean, this is like her entirelife, her entire worldview is
is kind of deconstructing.
It's the end of fight club,where all the buildings are
falling down around them, yeah,but it's also a large room with

(19:07):
a lot of people and it's veryloud.
So I don't know how much ofthis is like fear in that moment
.
So pastor Joby was just sotender with her, prayed for her,
and then what he does a lot oftimes, this is pastor Trey.
He's going to help you takeyour next steps.
So we go, sit down and we'retalking to her, and I brought a
lady along with me who is justthe best.

(19:27):
She's so motherly in herdiscipleship, and she said so,
you've surrendered your life toJesus.
And the girl looks up and shegoes.
I don't know what that means.
And she was like you've, you'vetrusted in Jesus to save you.
And she was like I've done that, she's great.
So is your next step to getbaptized?
And she goes.
I don't know what that means,like she's never been in church,

(19:50):
man Sure sure.
You should like surrender.
And I laughed.
I said, you know, was it weirdwhen we sang all these songs
about the blood of the lamb?
And she was, like there are alot of this.
So to answer that question, letme go back to like.
I think there's some basicthings that we ought to get in
order to understand getting in adiscipleship group.

(20:11):
The first thing is what is adisciple?
Pastor Joey has done such agreat job helping me and I think
a lot of people here at 1122understand that a disciple is
just someone who is taking stepsto follow after Jesus.
So we use the language here alot.
What's your next step of faith?
Your next step of faith couldbe to get baptized because

(20:33):
you've trusted in Jesus but,like, maybe your baptism was on
the wrong side of your salvationor maybe you've never been
baptized to go public with yourfaith.
Maybe your next step of faithis to find a place to serve and
use the gifts that God's givenyou.
Maybe it's to get in a disciplegroup and get some people in
your life who are digging intothe word of God and walking out
all of life with you.

(20:53):
So it's important that, like,we understand what we're after
in discipleship is helpingpeople take steps of faith to
follow him.
So years ago, pastor Joby kindof sketched out what we call the
discipleship journey and youcan find all of this on the 1122
website If you just Googlechurch of 1122 discipleship
journey.
It's a triangle.

(21:13):
And the reason it's a triangleis Pastor Joby says discipleship
isn't linear, it's not runningthe bases.
It legitimately is taking nextsteps.
And if you look at thediscipleship journey, in each of
those corners there's a phraselike this is what a disciple
loves, all people.
A disciple discovers theiridentity in Jesus.
A disciple deepens in theirrelationship with Jesus.

(21:35):
Like you're doing that all thetime.
You're loving people for therest of your life.
As a disciple, you'rediscovering more and more what
it means to be a son or adaughter of the king.
As a disciple, you aredeepening in your relationship
with Jesus, like you never stopdoing those things.
And then on that triangle right,if you just think, like the top
of the triangle and the cornersof the triangle, there's two

(21:55):
words in each of the corners.
So these are things that you'rejust asking.
Which one of these is my nextstep?
Do I need to serve?
Do I know what my gift is.
Do you know what your spiritualgift is?
If you don't know, one of theways to find out is just to
start serving and figure out.
What are you good at?
What are you not good at?
How has God uniquely wired you?

(22:16):
Like God has uniquely wired you, chris, you just have a mind.
You think about things in a waythat a lot of guys like they're
just busy with work or baseballor whatever.
God has given you a teachinggift a mind to open up the word
of God and help peopleunderstand what it means.
I would say one of the giftsthat God has given me is
discernment.
Like there are times, like I doa lot of discipleship, where

(22:39):
I'm sitting with there's a couchright over here in my office
and I'm sitting with couples andI'm trying to figure out how do
I help this husband who'sstruggling with pornography, or
this wife has had an affairwho's telling me the truth right
now, and a lot of times I canjust kind of sort through things
or get to the root, like Iteach my kids a lot the thing

(23:02):
you did, that's the fruit, butthere's a root.
Why did you hit your brother?
Why did you say that thing toyour mom or me.
Why did you?
Whatever that thing is, what'sthe root of that?
I think sometimes it just feelslike it's a little bit easier
for me to get to the root of athing, and that's a gift from
the spirit of God.
So how are you using that giftin order to build up the gifts?

(23:22):
In Paul's writings, the word forthe gifts is charis, which
means grace.
It is a gift that is meant tobring grace to the body of God,
to build up and establish thebody of God.
This is 1 Corinthians, 12, 13,14.
It is not meant for you to beput on a pedestal.
It's meant for you to build upand edify the body with whatever

(23:43):
that gift is.
The flip side of that is share.
Who is the person that you'repraying for?
We use the language of a onemore.
Who is the person, the one more?
What's a significant number inthe kingdom?
One more?
Jesus leaves the 99 for the one.
Who is the one more person thatyou're praying, that they would
come to know who Jesus is andwhat he's done for them.

(24:05):
And so you know this is thePastor.
Joby just talked about it thispast weekend that statement
that's attributed to Francis ofAssisi to share the gospel and,
if necessary, use words he'slike.
First of all, he didn't saythat and he'd be mad that people
said he said it.
Second of all, it's impossible.
The gospel is good news, right?
People need to know that.

(24:25):
God made you, he designed you.
Like what a truth in ourculture that says a fetus is
just a clump of cells.
To say not at all.
This is an image bearer of God,and God has a purpose and a
plan for their life.
None of us are just accidents.
You're not just the likehappenstance of a man loved a

(24:47):
woman and here you are now.
You were designed.
God had the idea of you when hefashioned you in your mother's
womb, but because of Adam andour own sinful decisions, we are
separated from God and none oflife will make sense.
I love the?
Uh, the opening scene of theequalizer.
You know we're in some men'spodcast.

(25:08):
Uh, two most important days inyour life are the day you're
born and the day you find outwhy.
That's it Right, man Like howmany guys are out there walking
around and they have no clue whythey exist.
And so God so loved everyperson in this world that he
sent his only son to live thelife that we couldn't live,

(25:31):
meaning, the standard is not.
Can you be good enough?
Can you be better than the guyin the cubicle next to you?
Can you bench more than thatguy?
Can you cuss less than that guy?
Can you be faithful to yourwife?
The standard is holy, morally.
I'm on my hands above thescreen right now.
That's right.
It is unobtainable to be morallyperfect.
We all know that if perfectionis the goal right and God

(25:53):
doesn't grade on a curve and weneed grace, which is God's
riches, at Christ's expense, helived the life we couldn't live
and died the death that wedeserve.
And so, because of Jesus, weget reconciled, forgiven for our
sins and reconciled to God, andhe's making all things new.
All things new.

(26:15):
Man Like you're busted upmarriage.
There's hope for your.
Your addiction, whatever thatthing is.
You're addicted to lying aboutyour golf score, or you're
addicted to cocaine, right,whatever?
Whatever that thing is that,it's like it got the hooks in
you.
You can be set free from that.
Everything is and will be madenew.
So who, who in your life needsto know that?
I had a professor in collegethat used to ask us, chris, how

(26:39):
many people cried themselves tosleep in our city last night
Cause they have no hope.
Who are you sharing with Allright now, go faster, cause I
know you probably got a breakcoming up.
Are you leaning into the faithfamily?
Who knows you?
And who do you know Like?
Isn't it terrifying when youhear every now and then that
somebody was in the hospital andhad like a borderline

(26:59):
life-saving surgery, and youdidn't know until after that
ain't doing it right, man Right.
You need to be in community,people need to know you, and I
always kind of talk about it interms of like you need people
before the fire hits your houseto help you navigate when it
comes, and you don't want tohave to find those people after
it's hit.
You want to build them inbefore.

(27:20):
But also you want people tocelebrate with man.
Sure, absolutely person.
Have them, bring a like thingout at a restaurant and sing
happy birthday to the soloindividual.
Yeah, there's always peoplearound who's celebrating the
high moments with you, not justwalking you through the low
moments.
Right?
What about faith?
How are you growing in yourability to trust the word of god

(27:43):
, to trust the spirit of god inyour life?
Like, how are you fanning intoflame the faith that's been
entrusted to you?
Who are you entrusting, who arethose faithful men that you're
entrusting those things to?
2 Timothy 2.2.
Then the last corner of it, thebottom left corner, salvation.
How are you leaning into andremembering what he's done for
you?
I love how David constantlytells us we've got to remember.

(28:05):
We've got to go back andremember.
David had to do this all thetime in his life.
Sometimes you have to whenyou're walking through a hard
situation, be able to go backand remember he was faithful 20
years ago when I went throughthat thing.
He was faithful 15 years agowhen I went through that thing.
He was faithful five days agowhen I went to that.
We forget all the time howfaithful God has been to us.

(28:26):
You got to go back and rememberyour salvation and lean into
that and I would say even insalvation, if you haven't been
baptized since you trusted inJesus to save you from your sins
, that is your next step.
And then the last one issteward, and this is the.
I'm saving this for the lastbecause this is the hardest one
for guys.
Okay, Okay.
Your wallet may be the numberone tool in your discipling and

(28:50):
your discipleship.
Your money goes where yourheart goes.
It's crazy, chris I mean, weknow this.
Every guy listening to yourpodcast probably knows this that
20% of people in a church arepaying for everything and 80%.
They're fine paying for theirkid to play on every travel ball
league.
They're fine paying whateverthe greens fees are.

(29:11):
They're fine paying to go getthat hunting lease and I'm into
all of it.
Right, I would love to join allof your guests and doing all of
those things.
But if you're stingy towards God, what do you think the outcome
of that would be and what Iwould say?
To a certain extent, if a guy'sopen to like, just hear me be

(29:31):
honest with you right now.
If you are not bringing back toGod, who has given you
everything you have, it's notjust that you're missing out on
a healthy and helpful rhythmthat God designed for really
logical and tangible purposes,that it helps you to understand
how to manage your money betterby being generous to God, but
you're also missing out on theblessing of being a part of the

(29:52):
movement of God in yourcommunity and to the ends of the
earth, like part of like what Ilove about giving is when I see
these videos on Sunday ofpeople who are like because 1122
gave, I heard the gospel inUganda because 1122 came in.
Like the hurricane effortreliefs in North Carolina, I
have a home now like all ofthese things.

(30:13):
I'm a participant in all ofthat.
God has, like, used those seedsthat I have, so just in
bringing back to me he'smultiplied the things that I've
gotten to be a part of.
I think guys always look at thebottom line and forget you're
missing out on an exponentialjoy that you could have in your
life in joining God and all ofthe things that he's doing.

(30:34):
A disciple stewards and I'lljust make it super tangible for
everybody who listens to thelion within us.
It may be hard for you tofigure out how to build it into
your budget to give you just gotto start somewhere and trust
God.
Now let me make it superpractical.
Every single one of us havesomewhere between two to five
thousand dollars worth of stuffin our house that we are not

(30:56):
using and we will not use Likewhatever that workout equipment
was that you bought in the 90sand it's sitting in your garage
your local church just toparticipate in all the things.
When you go to that church everyweek after that, you look at it

(31:16):
completely different becauseyou are investing into the
kingdom of God.
You see the fruit from yourfollowing him, the generous God
who gave everything for you.
You're following him into that.
Maybe just take that simplestep.
What kind of stuff do you havethat you could liquidate today
at a garage sale, at a pawn shopor whatever?
And you could take a step.
You're just not doing itbecause you're lazy.

(31:37):
Get in the fight.
Steward everything God hasentrusted you, from your body
all the way down to all of thestuff in your garage.
Steward it to the glory of God.

Chris Grainger (31:47):
That's the discipleship journey.
Love it, love it.
Guys.
We're going to take a break.
We'll be right back.
We'll keep digging into this.
With Pastor Trey, we're makinga big change that I think you're
really going to enjoy.
I spent a lot of time thinkingabout our spiritual kickoffs and
, honestly, I love doing themeach week, so much so we started

(32:08):
doing them live every Mondaythrough Friday inside our
exclusive platform.
And here's the best part wedecided to give full access,
completely free, so now you canjoin our daily spiritual kickoff
space at no cost.
Every day, we go live to readthe word, to encourage each

(32:28):
other and find simple andpowerful ways to apply God's
truth to our lives.
You'll even have the chance toengage with me directly, and if
you missed a live stream, don'tworry.
The videos are posted the sameday so you can catch up whenever
it works for you.
This is exclusivebehind-the-scenes content that

(32:49):
is not available anywhere else,and now we've removed every
excuse.
So if you're ready to getstarted, head over to
thealigningwithinus and grabyour free access today.
Let's grow together.
So, pastor Trey, I am curious onthe discipleship journey.
Love the model, definitely theframework.

(33:10):
Give us some practicalities ofhow it works.
So do you have a discipleshipleader for a D group.
I mean, do they meet in homes?
Do they meet at the church?
Love to get some insight forguys who are maybe interested,
or even church leaders who areinterested in how you guys do it
.

Pastor Trey Brunson (33:25):
Yeah.
So what we're looking for we'regoing to start a disciple group
is I'm looking for someonewho'd say, hey, I'll help lead
it and we'll coach you in that.
All right, like, here's whatyou say, here's curriculum.
All of our curriculum is basedout of the sermon, right?
What we're trying to do isdouble down on.
First of all, pastor Jobypreaches the scripture, like we
are this coming weekend,tomorrow night and Sunday will

(33:47):
be the last week in Titus.
We spent three weeks in Titus.
He'll finish that Like we teachthrough books of the Bible.
So what we're doing is helpingyou to understand what the
scriptures mean for you, and sowe're going to have a handful of
questions that come out of thatsermon.
The first one is usually goingto be something about who is God
from that text, because youcan't know who you are until you

(34:08):
know who he is, and knowing himis going to drive whatever
steps you take.
So we help coach disciple groupleaders to.
Here's how you use thatcurriculum, here's how you guide
those conversations.
A disciple group leader doesn'tneed to be a seminary professor
.

Chris Grainger (34:21):
Okay, yeah.

Pastor Trey Brunson (34:23):
Disciple group leader just needs to be
someone who says I'm willing tolike lead the conversation.
I'm willing to either open myhouse Some disciple groups are
in homes, some disciple groupsare in restaurants.
Some disciple groups are at ourcampuses.
Some disciple groups meetonline right Like we want to,
wherever you are, help you takethat step of faith, and so we're

(34:43):
just trying to create community.
Part of our bent at the moment,culturally, is individualism and
isolationism, which those aresome of the easiest weapons of
the enemy to get you alone andthen to lie to you and then to
take you out.
Right.
John 10, 10 says you have anenemy and he seeks to steal and
kill and destroy.

(35:03):
That's his job description andthat's what he's doing in our
culture by you thinking I've got400 followers on whatever
social media network, but thatain't community.
Those people don't know thatyou're failing in your marriage
or yelling at your kids orstruggling with alcoholism.
Those people see the editedpictures that you post and the

(35:25):
edited statements that you puton social media.
That ain't true communityPeople who see you.
So the disciple group leader isjust the person who kind of
facilitates that gatheringtogether.
Then what you're doing isyou're asking questions, you're
helping people to get talking.
Let's talk about what the textsays, not let's share all of our

(35:46):
thoughts about everything thatmight be pooling ignorance.
I had a high school wrestlingcoach who said that we were
welcome to drink from thefountain of ignorance when we
asked him questions.
So what we don't want is likewhat your neighbor down the
road's opinion is about.
What we want to know is whatare the scriptures saying?
How can we follow and bebiblical in the things that God
has called us to do?

(36:06):
So a lot of people are like allright, well, I'm willing to do
that.
Where do I get the people from?
Next question is who's in yourlife?
So I launched a disciple groupwith a buddy four years ago and
it started with who are someguys on staff that, like we just
kind of wanted to create aspace for us.

(36:26):
Let's not assume just becauseyou're on staff at a church that
you're leaning in and that youare thriving in your faith.
Let's be intentional about it.
So there were a handful of usstaff guys that started to get
together at 7 am on Tuesdays andafter a while there's probably
about six to eight of us inthere.
All of us started to say I'vegot these guys that I'm kind of

(36:48):
running with in different areas,why don't we invite them to
jump in with us?
So I had a buddy that I met ata coffee shop and we just
started talking.
I'm like, hey, man, why don'tyou just come to my disciple
group every week with me?
And I've met a couple of guyswho they were in our, like
college ministry, but aged out,and when I'm like, hey, what
disciple group are you in now?
They were like, well, I'm not.

(37:09):
And I'm like, well, you comejump in with us.
And it just kind of becomes thelike as I'm interacting with
different guys.
That's one of the questions I'masking.
You know, do you go to church?
Where do you go to church?
I don't go to church.
Well, come sit with me.
Personalize that invitation.
Come sit with me this weekend.
We have church 722 on Thursdaysor 9 and 11, 22 on Sunday.

(37:29):
Come sit with me and theneventually, if they're coming,
I'm like who do you have in yourlife?
The base assumption, chrisevery man you meet has probably
no other men in his lives unlesshe's an intentional disciple
making disciple.
There's all these studies rightnow that are coming out that
are saying men at an alarmingrate, like 20% of men would say

(37:52):
right now today I don't have afriend.
20% man.
Then it builds up to like Ithink it's like 50% say I might
have a few people that I couldtalk to but I don't talk to them
about anything significant.

Chris Grainger (38:07):
Yeah, surface level Yep.

Pastor Trey Brunson (38:08):
Yeah.
So so you're just bearing theweight of all of your wounds,
all of life happening to you,and you wonder why guys are like
doing desperate things, dumbthings.
It's because you're carryingmore weight than you're supposed
to and you're looking foroutlets and unhealthy places
that are easy outlets.
They're just not the rightoutlets.

Chris Grainger (38:29):
That's right, or ?

Pastor Trey Brunson (38:29):
you'll always be an easy outlet, it
will make you feel better for amoment, and that it immediately
adds shame and guilt andprobably fractured definitely
fractured relationships in therest of your life, because it
changes the way you think aboutyourself and other people.
That's right.
The gym can be a healthy orunhealthy outlet If what you're
trying to do is work out inorder to deal with shame and

(38:53):
guilt.
It don't matter how much youbench press man, if you don't
deal with the heart stuff, it'sjust compounding down on that.
All of these hobbies that wewould have like you can be an
expert at hunting, fishing,whatever thing you can tell me
who you know the bills draftedin 1981.
That's a waste of time Ifyou're not dealing with what's

(39:17):
actually beneath the surface.
It's like repainting your carwhen it needs a new transmission
.
Yeah, it doesn't fix theproblem.

Chris Grainger (39:24):
That's right.

Pastor Trey Brunson (39:25):
What we need is we need other guys in
our life getting beneath thesurface, which requires you to
be vulnerable.
It's tough, but if you'll behonest you can be free, and if
you won't be honest you'll neverbe free.
So, helping guys to get intolife together and to begin to
talk about things the bestdisciple groups, honestly, are

(39:45):
probably when you're gettingmore honest than you're actually
like leaning more, like gettingstuff out.
Getting it out in the open andhaving guys come alongside you
is what every guy needs.
But we're all avoiding itbecause we're afraid and you
shouldn't be afraid.
Fear is a spirit.
You got to pray that thing out.
You got to recognize every manthat would be sitting around
that table with you relates toyou and wants to help you.

(40:06):
But you got to say it, you gotto get it out.

Chris Grainger (40:09):
Curious too, Pastor Trey.
How do you guys combat like theage and stage mentality, Like
that's how most Sunday schoolsare set up in Southern Baptist
churches?
You know it's.
You know you have the oldergroups, you have the 20 year
olds, you have the 34 year olds.
I've heard Joby talk about it,I've heard Britt talk about it.
You know, I know that'sintentional for you guys where

(40:29):
you don't want that right, youdon't want a bunch of 20 year
olds giving each other advicethat's like that's a recipe for
disaster, you know.
So how do you go about?

Pastor Trey Brunson (40:34):
you know cultivating that as soon as you
said that the tough thing is,everybody listening to this was
laughing.
Thinking about 20 year olds allgiving each other advice about
life.
Right, like we know, that's acaricature of like that won't go
well for long that's right no,no, you don't know what you
don't know, so what you want.
what's amazing is when you getsome like older guys who would

(40:55):
say, you know, out of Titus,older guys pour into younger
guys, older women pour intoyounger women.
Younger women be willing toreceive that from them.
Younger men which is funny inTitus, I think that's the only
thing he tells younger men is tobe self-controlled.
I think everything after that'sfor Titus, but it's like the
one thing, because this is whatyounger men need self-control.

Chris Grainger (41:16):
That's right.

Pastor Trey Brunson (41:17):
But what he's also saying is listen to
the older men who can help yousee in yourself, to control it,
what you can't see in yourselfand you can't control in
yourself.
You need some of these oldermen in your life.
So, yeah, man, what we'retrying to do is keep it from
being cul-de-sacs, where whatwe're actually doing is all the
like police officers are meetingtogether and they're just

(41:40):
talking about work, and all ofthe firefighters are meeting
together and all the 20 year oldmen are actually just talking
about 20 year old girls, and allthe older men are talking about
what's wrong with thegovernment.
And what you want is all ofthose people mixing and mingling
life together, because you needpeople in your group.
In my group, I've got guys whoare in their early 20s and I've

(42:00):
got guys who are in their 80s.
What's wild to me is how oftenthe 20-year-olds can call out
the 80-year-olds.

Chris Grainger (42:07):
Yeah, yeah, right.

Pastor Trey Brunson (42:09):
Yeah, and we pray that the 80 year old
guys hear it.
And, what's amazing, we got aguy in our disciple group.
His name's John and John is theclosest thing to a saint I've
ever seen.
Like this guy's going to cry inevery disciple group because he
just moved by love for Jesusand he's going on in his
seventies.
He's going on mission trips toSouth Sudan like one of the most

(42:29):
dangerous places in the world.
This guy just loves Jesus andhe's so quick to say, like,
don't look to me, look to him.
And it's like all these 20 yearolds now, like we talk whenever
John's name comes up, everysingle one of them says I want
to be like that guy when I growup.
You know what we're missing inour culture, chris Heroes,
that's it.
Old dudes listening to thispodcast.

(42:49):
You're just showing up to adisciple group with some young
dudes.
You become the hero.
You become the guy that we.
Just we want to be like you.
We want our marriage to make it, we want our kids to not hate
us and we want to see themthrive.
And we want to know, like, howdo we navigate these difficult
moments?
The 20 year old guys want toknow how do I find a wife Right?
And you did it and you've beensuccessful at it because your

(43:11):
marriage is still going.
If you just show up to thedisciple group, what you do is
immediately give a standard to abunch of 20 year olds and 30
year olds that, like you can doit.

Chris Grainger (43:22):
Just keep chasing after him A hundred
percent and you've alluded a fewtimes, but I don't want to just
fly by this Are the groupstypically, you know you have
your men groups and you haveyour lady groups.
Do you have groups that arecouples?
I'm just curious how that works.

Pastor Trey Brunson (43:36):
Yeah, we do men's groups, women's groups
and then mixed like co-ed, okay.
And so again, like my wife hasa group of ladies.
They meet on Friday morningsfrom, like it feels like, 10 to
4.
But I'm pretty sure that's notthe time.
They just they love beingtogether and so they're together
for most of the day on Friday,it feels like.
And then I'm in a men's groupon Tuesday morning.

(43:59):
And then we have couples groupswhere, like I'm sure a lot of
young couples get in a group,especially when you get married.
It's one of the first questionsI ask couples I do premarital
counseling for Do you have anolder couple that can mentor you
through the first year or twoof your marriage?
And it's sad, chris, how manyof them say no, they don't have
an older godly couple that theycan lean into.

(44:21):
So I then try and help seedthat relationship by putting
them in a disciple group withother couples.
It's just normal.
I did a Zoom call last nightfrom seven, 30 to nine, with a
couple I married six months agoand they just wanted to talk
through like we're fightingabout this, we're struggling
with talking about that, and Ikept laughing.
They're like why are youlaughing?

(44:41):
I'm like this is just normalmarriage.
This is not uncommon, but youdon't know what you don't know.
And they do have some uniquethings like tensions with her
dad, who's not a Christian andhe's very selfish, and it's
creating a lot of trouble forthem.
So I said I'd love for you totalk with and join a disciple
group with this group of couples.
For one, it'll make you feelnormal.
Two, it'll give you somecommunity to help you navigate

(45:04):
those conversations with andthis is just life Like.
We have to cultivate community,not just either neglect it or
expect it.
You have to this is on everydisciple.
You have to cultivate it.

Chris Grainger (45:18):
I mean, and I know this, the stats for 1122 is
through the roof for yourlisteners, your people that are
showing up for all the services.
How is that correlating to theD groups?
Are you seeing a nicetrajectory there as well, Growth
for people?
Because that's to me, that'swhere they're starting to really
lean in yeah, yeah, we, wewould say like healthy metrics
for discipleship.

Pastor Trey Brunson (45:39):
So you got any pastors who you know are
listening to this I want to lookat.
We kind of have three maindiscipleship pathways serving in
the church, being in a disciplegroup at the church and going
on a mission trip at the churchand we would say all
discipleship.
Everything we do is an on-rampto one of those three things.
How are we helping people totake steps of a disciple, to use

(46:00):
the gift that God's given themto be in community where they're
growing in their faith, and totake the faith to the ends of
the earth to see the gospelcover the earth like the waters
cover the sea.
So we're constantly pointing inthat.
So we're always looking atthose numbers and trying to
figure out of all of those andyou could count, like you
probably have people who aregoing on a mission trip in a
disciple group and serving it'sokay if you count multiple times

(46:22):
, but what percentage of yourpeople at your church?
Or you know, if you're amulti-site church like us, all
of your campuses are engaged inthose three things and we want
to see that growingproportionately to the number of
people who are coming to ourchurch.

Chris Grainger (46:36):
Gotcha, gotcha.
Okay, that's a good message tolook at for sure.
Okay, well, guys, we're goingto take our last break.
We'll come back and finish upwith Pastor Trey.
Life can feel heavy and toooften we try to carry it alone.
At the Lion Within Us, we builda Christ-centered community
where you can go, connect, growand be encouraged by brothers

(47:01):
who get it.
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space to be real.
Remember, every man needs astronghold and you don't have to
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We'd love to welcome you in.
That's thelionwithinus, I'llsee you inside.
So I am curious, pastor Trey,on the discipleship journey for
men in particular, you knowyou've walked with a lot of guys
.
What do you see as maybe thebiggest headwind or roadblock

(47:47):
that gets that prohibits guysfrom really leaning in and
sharing and being open and beingvulnerable and transparent, all
the stuff that we know we need?
Just curious, from your purview, where do you see that hurdle
being?

Pastor Trey Brunson (48:03):
I think some of it's fear.
I don't think most Christianshave a healthy theology of the
enemy.
You know, like I feel like I'mholding a lot of movies today,
but the movie the Usual Suspectsback in the day it was Stephen
Baldwin and all those guys whenthe famous line from that movie

(48:26):
was the greatest lie the devilever told was convincing the
world he didn't exist.
I think, probably functionallylike there's two ditches with
spiritual warfare.
One is like thinking thatthere's a demon behind every red
stoplight, but the other, whichis probably the majority, it's
probably like 20% of people,maybe 15% of people.

(48:48):
That's a problem is thateverything is demonic, but like
85% of Christians, the struggleis they have no category.
Like you're not thinkingthrough your day.
Is the enemy lying to me?
And what I have found in mylife to be true is that the
voice of the enemy sounds somuch like my own voice in my
head and what happens is like alie just kind of gets sewn

(49:12):
through a situation I'm in.
Maybe he plants that lie, ormaybe it's a wound from, like my
past somehow, but a lie juststarts rolling around in my head
and honestly, chris, I don'tknow why, but like it feels to
me like it takes about threeweeks before I will say
something, and it's almostalways my wife who will catch

(49:35):
something that I say in aconversation and she'll say hold
up, what did you just say?
And I'll think about it andI'll say it.
She's like how long have youbeen believing that?
And I don't know why, man,three weeks is kind of like a
magic number for me.
For some reason.
Three to four weeks like it's.
Like I've had a thing in theback of my head, not like the
front of my mind, but in theback of my head, just multiple

(49:57):
situations.
You know, at night, before I goto sleep, you know when I'm
driving in the car, like just athought that's in there, and it
takes other people almost alwaysChris to help pull that thing
out, for me to see it, which islike we want to take every
thought captive.
As Paul says, we want to pulldown whatever's been elevated,
any lofty thing that's beenelevated above what he said of

(50:20):
us.
Like you got to have otherpeople and I think so many men
get stuck in lies and that a lie.
Quickly in our faith and in ourhearts and minds it moves from
a thought to like a thoughtpattern to an identity.

(50:41):
There's a book that was writtenyears ago.
I think the guy's name was BenPaisley.
He was a worship leader and thebook's title was Orphan, slave
Son.
What Ben said was the enemy isgoing to try and pull you to
seeing yourself as an orphan,like I'm all on my own.
It's up to me.
You know, a real, manifest,destiny version of discipleship.

(51:01):
I got to make my own life, domy own things.
This is a pretty common lie Ihave found in a lot of baby
boomers Go build your life,build your empire.
The second identity lie that theenemy can throw at you is a
slave, and this one's a commonone for me because I grew up as
a pastor's kid and I grew up inthe Southern Baptist Convention

(51:21):
and I know that we talked a lotabout the gospel and grace.
But what I heard a lot was youjust got to be better.
Just be good, be better, don'tdo these things Right.
Don't do those things.
What's the Joby says don'tdrink, smoke or chew or go with
girls who do that's right.
That probably is a pretty goodsummation of what we were
unofficially taught.
And so there's this likeperformance drive in me that

(51:45):
I've got to earn God's approvaland I've blown it.
I failed right Like.
That is not true.
That immediately moves from alie of the enemy into an
identity that I embrace and whatwe're after is we are sons and
daughters of the King.
That's a liberating identity.
It's also a convictional and acalling identity.

(52:05):
Sons and daughters of the Kinghave things that we do that are
different, like we're called tolive different.
There's more for us.
This is the abundant life hehas more for us.
It's not just that there's anenemy comes to steal, kill and
destroy, but Jesus has come togive us an abundant life, and so
we've got to lean into thevoice of the good shepherd

(52:26):
because we have access to hisvoice.
That's right.
There's a lion within us, rightOn the, because we have access
to his voice.
That's right.
There's a lion within us right,it's on the wall behind you,
dude.
The spirit of the living God iswithin us and he's calling us
not just into more, but more ofhimself and more of his heart.
And I think so many guys justget jammed up on one of these
lies from the enemy that becomesan identity and it keeps you

(52:49):
from taking that step of faithbecause you think it doesn't
matter and you think you can't.
Or he keeps you jammed upbecause there's just fear and
shame and guilt.
And what you have to know is thegospel doesn't just liberate us
from death to life, it alsosets us free from guilt and
shame and fear, and bondage Likethis is why repentance is

(53:12):
important.
It's not just the key into lifewith God, it's the rhythm of
the life of the believer issaying I have been believing a
lie, I need to surrender that toyou and I need to take steps of
a disciple to follow you intothe identity that you have for
me more and more, because it'smore of your heart for me.
Guys, just get jammed up onlies, man, and lies lead to

(53:32):
identities and identities leadto like decades of bondage 100%,
brother, 100%, pastor Trey.

Chris Grainger (53:38):
You are on fire.
Brother, look, before we wrapup, we always like to have a
little fun lightning round atthe end, just to kind of
dovetail, let the guys know alittle bit more about you.
So if you're willing to playman, we'll jump right into that.
Let's do it All right, buddy,what's a hobby?
What do you enjoy doing for fun?

Pastor Trey Brunson (53:56):
I enjoy hunting.
I enjoy honestly coaching mykids.
Right now, that is the hobby Isee coming.
I've got my 10-year-old Judah,who just lives for sports.
I get so much joy out ofwatching him and my son, wyatt,
just crush it, crush it atfootball and soccer.
Right now, I'm learning soccer.

(54:17):
I didn't grow up playing soccerSoccer.
Right now we're about to getback into tackle in the spring.

Chris Grainger (54:23):
I got you.
I got you.
Okay.
What about favorite food?
What's your go-to?

Pastor Trey Brunson (54:28):
Steak.

Chris Grainger (54:29):
That's easy favorite food.
What's your go-to steak?

Pastor Trey Brunson (54:32):
that's easy we're like if it's a hard day
at the church and I'm drivinghome, I stop at public's and
pick up a steak and just go inand treat myself there you go,
there you go.

Chris Grainger (54:41):
Now you've mentioned a few movies already,
so it sounds like you're a moviebuff, so what is your favorite
movie?
What's your go-to?

Pastor Trey Brunson (54:47):
well, you're gonna laugh at me, man.
My favorite movie is willywonka.
It just was such a like okaymovie to me as a kid and I think
what it did for me was showedme like how powerful
storytelling can be, becausewhen you look at it now,
obviously it's like there's nogospel and willy wonka but all
of these kids who are controlledby their passions and at least
destruction.

(55:07):
Yeah.
So I love willy wonka, but man,but man.
I'm a sucker for any goodaction suspense.
I've loved all of the likeTyler Sheridan stuff right now.
It blows my mind that that guycan create so many worlds.
I'm a big reader.
I've read all of the likeReacher series, all of the Jack

(55:30):
Carr stuff.
I love a good Navy SEAL slashtough guy story.
So I'm loving the Reacher stuffright now on Amazon All good
testosterone inducing.

Chris Grainger (55:42):
There you go.
What about sports teams?
Like, who are you pulling foryou?
Because you've lived all over.
So I'm super curious, likewhere's your loyalty lie?

Pastor Trey Brunson (55:50):
I have the weirdest loyalties.
You you know, you think, allthe places that I've grown up.
So it's hard for me to not pullfor florida, because tim tebow
invested a lot of money and runthe race and he's become a good
friend and I'm just thankful forthat guy.
So I I yelled pretty loudly theother night when florida won I
was saying, man, they just had abig night, big night.
I cannot believe I was sonervous because it came down to

(56:12):
the wire.
College football boomer soonerman.
I'm a big Oklahoma fan.
And part of it was when I wasgrowing up in Texas.
Adrian Peterson, was thatOklahoma Brother, that guy?
He hung the moon in my mind interms of football players.
He's up there there, man.
Uh, of greatest of all time inmy opinion.
Um, I'm a big packers fan and Ijust pull in for green bay,

(56:36):
which is funny.
Uh, you know, the cowboyshaven't won a super bowl.
Uh, since I think I was inelementary school, you would
think, having grown up in dallas, right, they were losing.
When I was there, a lot man, Iwas a big brett far was a big
Brett Favre, a big Aaron Rodgersfan.
You know, pull for them.
My mom is a massive Clemson fanand a massive Dallas Mavericks

(56:57):
fan, so I pull for the Mavericks.

Chris Grainger (56:58):
Okay.

Pastor Trey Brunson (56:59):
You know I just love competition.
I'll watch any sport anytime,especially with my kids, because
I'm trying to teach them aboutsportsmanship and the heart of
you know a leader.
I want my kids.
My dad did such a great jobEvery day going to school.
My dad would say be a leader,be a leader, be a leader.
And the funny thing, Chris, isI hear it in the back of my head

(57:19):
all the time.
I step into a room when I knowit's a difficult situation and I
hear my dad's voice in the backof my head saying be a leader.
So I walk into a lot ofsituations just thinking what
would a leader do right now?
And I'm trying to do that withmy kids, and sports is one of
the best ways you can do thatwith your kids 100% Great, great
teaching grounds right there,for sure.

Chris Grainger (57:40):
What about a superpower?
If you could have one, pastorTrey, which one would you pick
and how would you use it?

Pastor Trey Brunson (57:50):
I have no clue, man Wisdom.

Chris Grainger (57:53):
I don't know if that's your superpower.

Pastor Trey Brunson (57:55):
I pray that Prayers.
You pray a lot.
I pray for wisdom all the time.
God, please give me wisdom.
Give me wisdom in parentingthese kids.
Give me wisdom in loving Rachelbetter.
Give me wisdom in being apastor, leader, partner in the
gospel to Pastor Joby, pastorBritt, you, man, give me wisdom
today.
I want the guys on the linewith us.
I don't care if anybodyremembers my name.

(58:18):
I hope that God's given me somewisdom that I can pass on.
And some guy right now issaying I don't want that lie to
be the identity that shuts medown for 20 years.
Let me get out.

Chris Grainger (58:27):
That's it.
That's a great one.
That's a great one.
That's it.
That's a great one.
That's a great one.
What about if you look back formaybe the last few months or
last year?
What did you spend too muchtime doing?
I always like to pull this outof gosh, just to see where you
know.
Just to reflect for a secondtoo much time doing probably
worrying okay, I hear that one alot yeah.

Pastor Trey Brunson (58:47):
I mean, yeah, there's.
There's those things in yourlife you wish you could unroot
somehow, and part of that is yougot to go back to where it
started, like I had a moment,man, that like was difficult,
painful for me, and it led tolike a long season of anxiety.
And I've done a lot of work todig some of that out, to go back
and see what.
What was happening in thatanxiety is me taking the place

(59:10):
of God and not being able to doanything about it.
I got no power to change some ofthese things, and so I put
myself in the sovereign king ofthe universe's position.
He can do something aboutanything.
Anxiety is I'm just worriedbecause I can't do anything
about it and I stay fixated onit.
So you got to do a lot of workto get that out.
But worry is like theunwelcomed college roommate that

(59:33):
I wish I could kick out.

Chris Grainger (59:34):
That's it.
That's it.
Well, a couple more here realquick.
So what's your favorite thingabout God when you think about
him?
Summarize that like what's thetop thing.

Pastor Trey Brunson (59:44):
I just met with a guy who's been struggling
with pornography and his wifecaught him and he was asking me,
like, what are my next steps?
And one of the things I said tohim was hey, man, you need to
string together some days ofbeing honest, no more lies and
being above reproach, not hidinganything, but also you need to

(01:00:06):
be tender.
And I'm trying to rememberwhere it's at, where it says
that he won't quench asmoldering wick and he won't
break a bruised reed.
And it's talking about thetenderness of Jesus, how tender
he is with us.
And I can look back on my life,Chris, and see these moments
where it was hard and it washeavy and my mind is swimming in

(01:00:29):
anxiety and doubt and fear andall of this stuff.
And God was just so tender inthose moments with me, Powerful
for sure, I mean, he's the Godof the universe but very kind
and tender and caring for me.
The tenderness of God is anattribute that I don't know.
We talk about a lot, but Iexperience it a lot.

Chris Grainger (01:00:52):
Awesome, and that's the first we've heard
anyone bring that one up.
Now let's flip it 180.
Least favorite thing about theevil one.

Pastor Trey Brunson (01:01:02):
How consistent he is in lying.
He's consistent man, it's notlike the enemy, you know.
You read after the temptationin the wilderness and it says
that Satan left and waited tocome back for an opportune time.
An opportune time is right now,right right.
And you think in your life, man, like how often it can feel

(01:01:25):
like it's a barrage.
My grandfather went in at UtahBeach.
I went over a few years ago toFrance with him before he passed
away and my grandfather couldpoint out exactly where he came
in on the beach, exactly thepath he took to get up to this
little crest of a hill where hebuilt a little fire.
He wanted to cook some eggsthat night and his commander
came over like kicked sand onthe fire and told him they could

(01:01:47):
, they could pick you off from amile out, like he knew exactly
where all of that stuff was.
But he told us how We've seenall the movies but it's intense,
right, they've got all of thoseguns just shooting down on all
those troops trying to get offthose transports to get onto the
beach so they can get up thosehills to get into where the
enemy was.
The other thing he told us wasabout all the hedgerows.

(01:02:09):
There were all these hedgerowsand the Nazis would hide behind
these hedgerows and they wouldwait for troops to come around
and they would just shoot themand destroy them.
And what Patton did?
Patton just said, ah, screw it.
And I don't know if this isokay to say in your podcast, but
that's what Patton said and hejust drove the tanks right over

(01:02:30):
them, right Like just run overthose hedgerows.
The enemy is always there, he'salways taking shots, he's always
lying to you, he doesn't take aPTO day, he doesn't get the flu
, he doesn't need a nap, likeit's just, it's, it's consistent
.
And Screwtape Letters anothergreat book for in listening to

(01:02:52):
this is such a great insightinto screw tape letters.
And then this present darknessfrom Frank Peretti.
I don't hear anybody talk aboutthat anymore.
That was a great book that Iread years ago about the reality
and and um, what spiritualwarfare probably looks like.
And it's a little bit moremodern.
Uh, from like a screw tapeletters.
Um, the enemy is always comingafter you.
He doesn't stop, he doesn'thave a day off and I think

(01:03:15):
sometimes we think he's justgone away, he's waiting to come
back in an opportune time.
No man, this is Normandy, it'sUtah.
He is shooting bullets down atyou every single day, at your
wife, at your kids, at thebuddies in your disciple group,
at the people sitting on thepews in your church.
The enemy is coming after themand we have to have some like

(01:03:36):
sober mindedness is what Petersays in first Peter five like
there's an enemy and he's outthere and he's coming after you.
He's a roaring lion, he's onthe prowl.
Pastor Joby says if you got atext message right now and it
said wherever you are at youroffice, at your home, at your
church and you got a textmessage that said a lion got out
of the zoo and they spotted itaround wherever you are, you

(01:03:58):
wouldn't just bebop out of youroffice or church or your car.
You would be vigilant onyourself and you would be
looking for.
And yet so many people are justgoing about life like it's
Wednesday and there's no enemyafter them.
And I would say to that Chris,like he follows that up and he
says right after that, cast allof your anxieties on him, which

(01:04:21):
kind of in my mind connects tolike well, maybe that's part of
how the enemy's coming after meis, through worry and anxiety,
and it doesn't say cast youranxieties on him because Jesus
is bigger and stronger and cansolve them.
It says cast your anxieties onhim because he cares for you.
Now take that and fast forwardto Revelation, chapter two or
three.
When he's talking to the churchin Philadelphia and he says,

(01:04:42):
hey, I know your tribulation, Iknow the poverty that you're
enduring like they're beingpersecuted, he says I need you
to endure, I need you to keepgoing after it.
We have an enemy who's comingafter us and what we have to do
is be aware of his attacks andendure with faithfulness.
Amen, brother.

(01:05:03):
Amen.
Long answer to a short question.

Chris Grainger (01:05:05):
Well, it's a great answer.
It was well needed too.
And the last question for youis what do you hope the guys
listening remember the most fromour conversation today, pastor
Trey?

Pastor Trey Brunson (01:05:31):
You have the authority and the power and
the community and all of thetools that you need to change
that conversation in your headand that leads to changing the
way you live your life.
You are not the failure.
You are not defined by yourdivorce.
You are not defined by yourfailed business.
You're not defined by the waysthat you blew it with your kids
20 years ago.
You're not defined by whateverthat thing is.
My brother's a correctionsofficer in a prison full of

(01:05:52):
lifers Union CorrectionalInstitute here in Florida, which
is also where we have a campusin that prison, and I go in and
worship with those guys.
Those guys are more free than alot of people that I worship
with in church on Thursdays andSundays and it's because you are
locked up in lies and thegospel sets us free and you can
just take yourself right backand put yourself right back in
bondage If you're not careful byallowing that lie to become

(01:06:16):
your identity.
I hope if any guy's listeningto this, he recognizes shame is
not from God.
There is therefore nocondemnation for those who in
Christ.
Guilt is not from him,conviction is from him.
Conviction says you've beenbelieving the lie or you've been
living beneath the calling onyour life, but guilt and shame
do not come from him.
Don't live in that lie.

Chris Grainger (01:06:37):
Amen, brother, amen, pastor Trey.
This has been phenomenal.
I knew it would be.
Where do you want to send guysif they want to connect with you
?
Or 1122?
Any websites or social mediathat you'd like to point them to
?

Pastor Trey Brunson (01:06:48):
Yeah, coe22.com is the church of 1122
sites.
I can tell you Pastor Joby isone of the best preachers in the
United States period, in theworld period.
I don't know anybody outside ofthe US but Pastor Joby is such
a man of faith.
He's a great friend.
Like how often do you get tohear that from guys you know on

(01:07:09):
staff at a church?
He's not just my pastor, he wasmy friend long before he was my
pastor and I serve with joybecause I see a man who walks in
integrity, who walks inconviction, who walks in his
gifting.
I don't feel like I get up andgo to work, man, I get up and
join my friend and going afterthe enemy and setting captives
free.
It's a joy, man.
You should listen to him preach.

Chris Grainger (01:07:28):
Amen.
I've pretty much listened toeverything back to 2012 when it
started, so I've binged it allin.
I point so many guys to him, toyou guys.
Thank you so much for sharing.
It's been an honor.
I knew this was going to beawesome and, pastor Trey, I just
appreciate everything you didtoday.

Pastor Trey Brunson (01:07:45):
Love you man.

Chris Grainger (01:07:46):
Love you.
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(01:08:35):
started today.
All right, guys, I told you Iwas gonna be a good with pastor
trey brought it.
I knew he's gonna brought hisa-game.
It was just I, just something.
When I met him the first time,I knew I was like you know what
this is going to be awesome andI know it was.
Let's just face it.
So hopefully you guys enjoyedthat.
Definitely go check out churchof 1122.
If you're not listening toChurch of 1122, I don't know
what else to tell you.
That's something that's a givenfor me.

(01:08:57):
Every week I'm listening to1122.
Whoever's preaching there,right, it's not.
If Joby doesn't preach, I don't.
It's not like I don't listen.
I want to listen to all of them, because there's so much to
learn, there's so, or toyourself and really think about

(01:09:18):
that, because if we're pointingit to ourselves, we're trying to
get the glory.
We're missing the opportunity,the true opportunity that God
has put forth in front of us.
Okay, so, guys, look, give us arating, give us a review, come
back on Friday.
We'll have a fun Friday episodethat you're going to like.
We're going to have our tips,our dad jokes, all that fun
stuff we do on a fun Friday.
But I would highly encourage you, head over to thelinewithinus

(01:09:39):
that's our website.
Check out our resources, openup the Bible app, search for the
Line Within Us.
You'll see all the devotions wehave out there.
I there, I'm constantly tryingto pray and to write and just to
put things out that encouragesChristian men to be the leader
that God has called us to be.
And fellas, thelinewithinus isa great way to find all our
resources.
We have a weekly ROAR email.

(01:10:01):
We have a Christian leaderassessment.
All these things I've mentionedso far are just free.
We just want to give and blessyou with, okay, and then, if
you're ready to lean in andreally, if you're missing that,
what Pastor Trey was talkingabout today so far as the
communities, the connections andthe true relationships that you
could be all just open with.
That's what we built a linewithin this community for,
because we know it's missing inso many guys' life.

(01:10:23):
So check it out, check out ourmastermind groups.
I'm telling you, guys, we havebuilt some incredible resources.
God gets all the glory and Iwant you to be blessed.
I really want you to be blessedby leaning in and checking it
out.
So, thank you so much forlistening, fellas.
We'll catch you next time.
You know what's coming.
Keep unleashing the lion within.