What if the gap between where you are and the leader God is calling you to be could be bridged by a few simple, repeatable habits? We explore how delighting in God reshapes desire, why exercise is a form of stewardship, and how short, consistent family devotions can transform the culture of your home. Anchored in Psalm 37:4, we reframe spiritual growth from a Sunday-only activity to a daily rhythm that actually forms character.
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Get Free Daily Inspiration With Our Bible App Devotionals
Our devotionals dive deep into the pillars that define The Lion Within Us - health, wealth, and self. W...
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving
Christian men who are hungry tobe the leaders God intends you
to be.
I'm your host, Chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, fun Fridaytime.
Let's get right into it.
Okay.
So the scripture of the weekthis week has been in the book
of Psalms, the 37th Psalm, thefourth verse, delight yourself
in the Lord, and He will giveyou desires of your heart.
(01:13):
Now, again, I took some timethis week to unpack that verse
in our spiritual kickoffepisode.
So back up to in your podcastfeed if you haven't had a chance
to listen to it.
And I'll try to give you someinsights on how you could
simplify and apply that to yourlife.
As a quick reminder, we do thespiritual kickoff Monday through
Friday in our line within uscommunity.
And I'm guys, I can't emphasizethis enough.
(01:35):
It's just encouragement for you.
It's just a little encouragementeach and every day to help you
in your walk.
There's nothing earth-shatteringabout it, but I just try to be
truthful how how the scriptures,what the Holy Spirit is showing
me on how well I can simplifyand apply it to my life.
So if you're looking for that,you know, again, a service on a
Sunday is not enough, fellas.
So we give you this every day,Monday through Friday.
(01:56):
You can join us live while we doit, which is pretty cool.
But if you can't make the live,we put the videos there every
day.
Okay, so they're there for you.
We don't put them anywhere else.
They're not going on YouTube,they're not going anywhere else.
It's really there and thereonly, okay?
So cool part is all that's free.
We just offer that up because wejust want to encourage you, all
right?
And that also it also opens up aprayer request board.
(02:19):
So if you have prayer requests,you have things on your heart
that you're that you just wantsome brothers in Christ to soak
in prayer and not really put itout there like on social media.
We have that for you guys.
We have that directly withinthat.
And it's all part of the dailyspiritual kickoff.
So head over to thelionwithant.us, start your daily
spiritual kickoff today, okay?
So the last episode, what a funconversation with Mr.
(02:41):
David Mack again, or J.
David Mack, rather, right?
Fun guy, lots of things to learnfrom him.
78 years old and on fire for theLord, building resources,
helping stuff to the level ofintentionality that he has
around discipleship, unreal.
I mean, he mentioned disciplinghis eight-year-old granddaughter
(03:01):
several times.
So this is this is somethingthat he's putting a lot of
effort into because herecognizes that's a gap, and
it's a big gap in the church forsure.
Discipleship is not somethingthat gets talked about.
There's not formal training.
It's usually, you know, it'sjust it's just ill forgotten.
Okay.
And so we have to lean in.
We need to change that.
So if you're looking forresources again, check out his
(03:23):
resources there on hisdiscipleship program on how that
works.
All right.
So now we're going to focus onthis week some discipleship tips
to try to kind of just stickwith the theme, okay, of the
whole week.
So for the lion on our funFriday, we do a health, wealth,
and a self tip.
Okay.
Health is again, how do westrengthen our mind and our
bodies?
Wealth, how do we become betterstewards of our finances and our
(03:44):
careers?
And self is as a husband and afather, how can I incrementally
get be getting better?
Okay.
So the health tip this week ismaybe we should be exercising
stewardship, uh, or viewexercise rather as stewardship
and not vanity.
Okay.
We have to remember, body's notjust ours, it's God's temple.
(04:05):
First Corinthians tells us that.
So exercise shouldn't be aboutchasing a number on a scale or
sculpting a physique to when youlook in the mirror, like, yeah,
that's me, and you're trying toimpress others.
No.
It's all about building strengthand resilience so that we can
serve.
(04:25):
Okay.
So if you're healthy, fellas,think about this.
You have the energy to play withyour kids, you have the energy
to provide for your family, youhave the vitality to respond
when God calls you to dosomething, right?
So I don't know what it lookslike for you.
I just know it has to besomething.
There needs to be 30 minutes, anhour, whatever, whatever the
number is.
And this needs to be aconsistent thing, not one day a
(04:47):
week, not two.
I wouldn't challenge, I wouldn'tchallenge you.
This should be a daily somethingyou do, something every day.
That could be lifting weights,it could be running, it could be
cycling, it could be walking, orit could be a combination of
all, right?
That's that's really the best.
But frame the workout, the wholepoint of this tip is frame your
workout as an act of worship,okay?
(05:10):
Because if we strengthen ourbody, like then we can do what
God's called us to do.
But if we if we don't take thetime to to truly uh fine-tune
ourselves from a physicalstandpoint, we're gonna render
ourselves obsolete, and we don'twant that, okay?
All right.
Wealth tip this week, guys.
(05:30):
Pray before you make keydecisions at work.
Okay, so think about this.
Think about how fast stuff movesat work, right?
And and pressure's building up,and pressure often makes us
react instead of reflect.
But James tells us James 1,quick to hear, quick to hear,
(05:52):
rather, slow to speak, slow toanger.
So before you head into a majormeeting or a sales pitch, uh, or
you're trying to make somepersonnel decisions, pray.
Pray.
It should be a 30-second prayer,but that's okay.
Ask God for that discernment,ask him for the patience to make
the right decision, ask him forthe wisdom to truly uh
(06:15):
understand the situation beforeyou speak something into it,
right?
This is this is a a simplediscipleship journey here.
And if you do this, this littlediscipline will shift your focus
from um proving yourself to nowyou're honoring God.
And that's the definition ofleadership, guys.
And over time, if you do thisregularly, you're gonna build
(06:38):
trust, you're gonna build uhclarity, and you're gonna become
a uh recognized as a leader whois steady under pressure.
Not because you're awesome,which I think you're awesome,
but because you're demonstratingthat you're walking with the
Lord.
See how that works now.
For the self-tip this week,going back to one-on-one
discipleship, Mr.
(06:58):
Mack proved this out.
Lead your family in a devotionseveral times a week.
You have to do this.
Discipleship begins at home,guys.
And we can't outsource it.
You guys heard me talk aboutthis for years now.
You can't outsource spiritualleadership to someone who works
at a church.
No, it starts with you.
Deuteronomy tells us that in theShema.
(07:19):
We have to do this, right?
And you don't have to be abiblical scholar or a preacher
to be able to do this.
No, simply get your familyaround a table, open up God's
word, read some scripture, andthen ask maybe one question.
That's it.
And at the end of it, pray.
And this consistent action hereis the consistency is more
(07:44):
important than the perfection.
Please hear me on that, okay?
So plant those little seeds,plant with your spouse, with
your children.
And over time, if they see thatit's important with you, like
the rhythm that you're thatyou're putting in place, that's
gonna shift the culture.
Everything's gonna shift.
Make it normal to talk aboutGod's word.
(08:05):
Like just make it normal.
And if you do that, uh you'reyou're modeling a heart that
delights in God's word.
And I'm gonna tell you what,that's gonna make a more
generational impact overanything you could do, like on a
Sunday morning.
Now, I'm not saying don't go tochurch.
For sure, you should be pluggedinto a church, right?
That should be part of it.
That just should not be the onestaple a week that your family
(08:26):
recognizes you uh as a spiritualleader.
No, man.
Like, come on, are you kiddingme?
Every day, every day, that'syour opportunity.
There are your three tips,fellas, your health, wealth, and
self.
Exercise of stewardship, notvanity.
Pray before those key decisionsat work, and lead those family
devotions, right?
If you have to start somewhere,just start twice a week.
(08:48):
Whatever the number is, stickwith it and commit to it, okay?
Now, the book of the week, we'renot actually going to do a book
of the week this week because uhMr.
Mac actually doesn't print hisout.
He doesn't have printedresources.
But I just want to encourage youagain, J Mac.
So that's J-A-Y-M-A-C-K dot net.
(09:10):
Go there.
Here's the thing (09:10):
all his resources 100% free.
Everything is free, okay?
So go check this out, check outhis resources, and hopefully you
guys enjoy uh what you findthere.
Highly encourage you to checkout the discipleship one for
sure.
I think you're not gonna bedisappointed with that.
And uh just give him someencouragement along the way.
All right.
So we got some dad jokes today,fellas.
Dad jokes, we've got one ofthem.
(09:31):
We'll submit it from one of ourlisteners, John.
So this is the one he sent me.
Uh koi fish always travel ingroups of four.
Okay, this is what they do, butthey're attacked.
Koy A, B, and C will scatter,leaving behind the decoy.
All right, that's pretty good.
Thank you, John, for submittingthat one.
When he sent me, he emailed methat one.
(09:53):
I was like, That is a dog.
That's a pretty good one, rightthere.
So, John, I appreciate you,brother.
Number two, my parents raised meas an only child, which really
annoyed my younger brother.
All right, so I can relate tothat one.
Just kidding.
Just kidding, Matt.
So that's it, fellas.
That's number one and numbertwo.
Number one, koy fish alwaystravel in groups of four.
If attacked, koi A, B, and Cwill scatter, leaving behind the
decoy.
(10:14):
And number two, my parentsraised me as an only child,
which really annoyed my youngerbrother.
So, guys, let me know which oneyou like.
Number one and number two.
If you have a dad joke that youwould like to submit, go to
support at thelionwithin.us,send us an email there.
We'll use it.
We'll put it, we'll we'll giveyou a shout-out on a show, just
like we just did, John, andwe'll try to hook you up with
some resources and someencouragement along the way.
(10:35):
Okay.
So the question of the week thisweek is where are you confusing
fellowship with truediscipleship in your life?
And again, they are not the samething.
Okay, then they have componentsof each other, but they are not
the same thing.
So this is we spent a lot oftime and an exhaustive amount of
time this week talking about it.
So if you need help, if you needsupport in this area, please,
please, please reach out.
(10:56):
Let's have a conversation.
We'll get you uh connected withsome guys that actually want to
help you in your discipleshipjourney and encourage you along
the way, okay?
So, guys, thank you forlistening, for hanging out this
week.
It's always fun to hang out withyou guys, just to try to bring
you a little bit ofencouragement along the way.
Lots of things happening at theline within us for sure, with
the book, with all the thingsthat are that are coming up for
(11:16):
for us.
And it's just feel like God'sjust doing more and more,
showing me more and more.
I'm trying to be a uh diligentand listen to that.
But I just want to say thank youguys for listening to the show,
showing up week in and week out.
Uh, I I know there's lots andlots of podcasts out there.
There's lots of much betterhosts, I'm sure, out there,
fellas.
I'm just trying to humbly bringyou guys some encouragement each
(11:37):
and every week.
And I'm just very uh thankfulfor the ones that take the time
to listen to the lion.
And every anytime that you guystake an opportunity just to send
me a note of encouragement orjust something that, you know,
from our weekly roar and stufflike that, it really just picks
my day up.
And I just want to say thankyou.
Just from the bottom of myheart, if there's anything that
(11:57):
the lion can do to help you inyour journey, please reach out.
Again, we have probably now atthis point 50 more Bible plans
on the Bible app.
So if you're not connected withthis there, man, you're missing
out for real.
Just download the Bible app, theone from you version.
It's the number one Bible app inthe world.
And then search for the LionWithin Us, and you'll find all
(12:19):
our Bible reading plans, fellas.
And there's just there's quicklittle studies.
You know, most of them are fivedays.
They range from three to five toseven.
We even have a 30-day planthat's out there.
So, fellas, we just want to tryto encourage you in your walk
and your journey.
And along the way, if there'sanything I can do to support,
just reach out.
Okay.
All right, fellas, have a greatweekend.
Get after it.
Give us a rating review if youdon't mind.
(12:41):
Again, thelionwithin.us is whereyou find all of our resources
and you know it's coming.
Keep unleashing the lion within.
If you're tired of going at italone, we understand every man
needs wise counsel, but findingit can be quite the challenge.
That's why we build ourleadership masterminds.
(13:02):
This isn't just more content,guys.
It's real discipleship with aconsistent rhythm, small cohorts
of no more than seven guys,honest hot seat sessions, and
biblical counsel that turns goodintentions into action.
You'll get accountability,clarity, and a circle of
brothers who will challenge youand cheer you on.
(13:26):
We open up new options regularlyso there's room to find the
right fit.
It's not always easy, but it isworth it.
The first step is simple.
Take the leadership mastermindassessment.
No pressure, no hype, justthoughtful questions to help you
see where you are, where God isleading you, and whether this is
(13:49):
a good option for your nextstep.
Hey, if it's a fit, we're gonnafollow up with details.
And if it's not, we'll point youto resources to help you keep
growing.
Either way, you move forward.
So if you're ready to take theassessment, head over to
thelionwithin.us slashmastermind.
So that's thelionwithin.uslashmastermind to get moving today.
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