December 8, 2025 • 22 mins
What if your strongest muscle isn’t in your chest but in your soul? We take 1 Timothy 4:8 off the page and into real life, showing why godliness offers returns the mirror can’t and how daily spiritual training builds durable peace, clarity, and courage. Join us for a focused, practical guide to building a life that holds under weight. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a spotter, and leave a review so more men can discover tools to lead at home, at work, and everywhere in between. Then tell us: what will be your first spiritual rep today?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:43):
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast for
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, spiritualkickoff time.
Let's get into it.
Okay.
So the scripture of the weekthis week is in the book of 1
Timothy, the fourth chapter, theeighth verse.
It says, for physical trainingis of some value, but godliness
(02:05):
has value for all things,holding promise for both the
present life and the life tocome.
Okay, so man, powerful verse.
We're going to see how we cansimplify and apply that to our
life.
And again, if you enjoy how wedo this on our spiritual kickoff
episodes, guys, Monday throughFriday, we do it within our
community at the Lion Within Us.
Go get started.
(02:26):
We call it the Daily SpiritualKickoff.
So if you head over tothelionwithin.us and look and
you see something up the top, orthere's even places throughout
the site that says dailyspiritual kickoff, click it.
Sign up for it.
It's free.
We try to do this.
It also unlocks our prayer, uhour prayer request area of the
community.
And guys, that gets the mostattention out of everything that
(02:49):
we do.
Which praise the Lord.
I want it to because that's whatwe're going to battle on behalf
of the kingdom for others,fellas.
All that's found atthelionwithin.us.
Get started today.
I'm telling you, your dailyspiritual kickoff.
Okay.
So, first of all, when we startthinking about this scripture,
we need to understand, you know,I don't want to take anything
for granted.
Where is the book of 1 Timothy?
Okay.
(03:09):
So don't, if you don't know,it's okay.
It's in the New Testament.
Okay.
It's going to be just go pastthe gospels and Acts and Romans
and Corinthians and all thatstuff.
Then after 2 Thessalonians,you'll find 1 Timothy.
If you get to 2 Timothy, justback up a little bit, okay?
You're right there.
So that's where it's at.
(03:30):
The Apostle Paul wrote this toTimothy.
That's why I talk a lot abouthaving your own Timothy in your
life.
And this whole week we're goingto be talking about training,
discipleship, coaching.
And most the reason I likethinking about training is
because most guys get theconcept of training, right?
Think about when you walk to agym, right?
(03:52):
You know you would never walk inthe gym if you haven't been
there for maybe let's say acouple presidents.
Okay.
You haven't been there for awhile.
You don't walk into that gym andthrow 300 pounds up on a bar and
sit up underneath there on abench press and expect to push
it up.
You just don't.
I mean, that would be kind oflike unbelievable if you could
do that.
Why?
(04:12):
Well, strength doesn't appearovernight.
Think about that.
The result of strength isbecause you start showing up.
You grind it out.
You build the habits that areleading to the gains.
And you're, you're, you're,you're pushing yourself, right?
And you're doing it for apurpose so that you can get
stronger.
(04:32):
But there's a little tension,particularly when it comes to
our spiritual lives.
Many of us have have, for somereason, expect to walk in power
without putting in the effort.
Like, wait a minute, bro.
Like, oh, Joke is in everybodywants to be strong, nobody wants
to be sore.
Right?
We want peace and chaos,strength and trials.
(04:56):
We want clarity and decisions,but we haven't trained our
hearts to endure or our minds todiscern.
You see the struggle there?
And what Paul is challenging,Timothy, right here, is very it
speaks loudly, particularly forus as Christian men, because
that that's physical training isimportant for sure.
But we better be training inguidelines, which is infinitely
(05:19):
more valuable because it shapeswho we are and who we'll be for
eternity, fellas.
This is such a big deal.
And there's a decision trap thatexists.
And Paul's warning us righthere.
He's warning in the versebefore, before seven, he's
talking about worldly fables.
Right.
And which, which we translatethat to the way that we live
(05:40):
today, uh, it could be lookinglike the endless scrolling we do
on Instagram or TikTok orFacebook.
I mean, just think about howmuch time is wasted consuming
content that does not build usin godliness.
I mean, just think about it.
It's scary.
And what if we approached ourwalk with God with the same
consistency and intentionalitythat we approach the gym, or
(06:04):
maybe you approach fantasyfootball or social media, like
it just whatever that thing isthat you're passionate about,
what if you put that same levelof passion and intentionality
around your discipleshipjourney?
It would change everything.
And here's the deal an evil onedoesn't need to destroy us
outright, right?
(06:24):
He just needs to distract us.
He just needs us distracted longenough so that we never put in
the effort to build spiritualmuscle.
Because I'm gonna tell you atthe end of the day, boys, uh,
discipleship is hard.
It just is.
It takes work, it takes time, ittakes accountability, it takes
effort.
But just like the gym, theresults show up when we're
(06:46):
consistent.
And that's what Paul's trying toshow us here.
So we have to train beyond thegym.
Like, so how do we the questionshould be okay, all right, God?
So how do I train forrighteousness?
Like, what what do I do?
How do I train to be godly?
Well, you start making thedecision daily to first delight
in the Lord, and then you startadding that discipline to our
(07:08):
lives to what matters most.
Again, nobody's gonna get strongby accident.
Nobody.
You're not just gonnaaccidentally wake up and be able
to bench press a Buick.
It doesn't happen.
It's just not possible.
And no one's gonna grow closerto Christ just by coasting.
And I'm sorry if that if thatfalls wrong on some ears out
there, but you're not gonna growcloser to Christ by coasting by.
(07:32):
You gotta fight, you gotta putin the work, you gotta build it,
right?
So I'm gonna give you a couplethings to consider.
As you're trying to thinkthrough, okay, how can I
spiritually exercise and trainup?
Hey, number one, you betterstart with some daily scripture
reps.
Okay, just think about reps thatbuild muscles in the gym, right?
(07:53):
Same thing with God's word.
Consistency, that time in hisword, that builds spiritual
strength.
Maybe start with a chapter or acouple verses, but read it,
reflect on it, and then how canyou apply it?
Again, this is why we do thespiritual kickoff, helping you
simplify God's word, and thenapply it.
And then how about prayer?
(08:14):
Consider laps.
Like uh if you're if you'rewriting laps in a gym, you're
doing that for conditioning,right?
Prayer is your conditioning,right?
So not just praying at meals,but praying through the death
today, like always talking toGod, inviting him in, talk to
him while you're driving, whenyou're walking, when you're
working out, when you're layingdown, wherever you're at.
Keep the line open with God.
(08:36):
And then you better have anaccountability spot, all right?
You would never go under in agym and sit underneath a bench
with a weight that you do notknow that you can comfortably
push, right?
If you're gonna push yourselfwith a weight that's that's
heavier than what you think youcan do, you're gonna get what?
Yo, bro, can you come spot me?
The same thing is needed in ourdiscipleship journey.
(08:59):
Because we have to surroundourselves with brothers in
Christ who are gonna call usout, who are gonna push us
forward, who are gonna lift usup when we stumble.
And here's the thing, guys,they're not the guys that are
just gonna be our yes men.
It's like, yeah, just keep doingit your way, bro.
It's okay.
It'll probably be okay.
We don't need those types ofguys.
We don't need yes men.
We have plenty of those outthere.
We need true accountabilityspotters.
(09:22):
Okay.
And then that should lead us toserving.
Think about sets, like um theway you do different sets in the
gym, like you know, uh uhsupersets and things like that.
You do that to build strength.
If you have strength, but youdon't use it, it's wasted.
Absolutely waste it.
If you're doing the workout in agym just to look good in the
(09:44):
mirror, what a waste, bro.
No, for us, we put in thespiritual work so that we can
serve our community, we canserve our church, we can serve
our family, right?
This is how we can flex off andshow our faith and grow.
And this, again, it all does washumility at the same time.
And then the fifth exercise andthe last one, fellas, to
(10:05):
consider resting.
Like rest in Christ.
I don't care who you the bestathlete on the planet, they take
times to recover.
They do.
So we got to build the rhythmsas well as Christians to have
that Sabbath rest, right?
We we shut off the distractionsand we are just fully embracing
the peace of God.
(10:26):
Renewal is part of the training,fellas.
It all goes together, okay?
So right here, there's good newswhen we look at this verse,
okay.
The training isn't just fortoday's benefit, okay?
Paul reminds us, he tells us,godliness holds promise for this
(10:47):
life that we're living right nowand the life to come.
And that should bring us a lotof encouragement.
Because in a world out there,fellas, that is starving for
hope and peace, the only placewe're ever gonna find that is in
Jesus.
He is it.
And training for guiding this,the way we that Paul is telling
(11:08):
us here, produces that strengththat lasts anything besides you
can build in the gym or yourcareer or even your life.
So we have to really think aboutwhat are we training for?
Are we putting in the effort fortemporary strength to look good
in a mirror to trust to impresssomeone like how we look in a
bathing soup?
Or are we pursuing eternal gainsby daily walking and pushing
(11:32):
ourselves to walk closer withJesus?
Now the gym has its place.
Don't give up on the gym, boys.
We know it that line within us,we're all about taking care of
our physical bodies.
But the true test of the man isnot how much he can lift, right?
It's whether he's letting Christlift him and lead his life.
That's it.
I mean, are we fully surrenderedto the Lordship of Jesus Christ
(11:52):
and are we letting him lead us?
That's the big difference.
That's the big difference.
And look, if you've neversurrendered your life to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, andyou're like, what in the wild
world sports is this guy talkingabout?
I'm telling you, fellas, you'rehere for a reason.
And I don't know, maybe you justyou you found this type of this
verse and you're just curious,whatever it may be.
(12:15):
Please hear me.
You you are made in the image ofGod.
And if we go back to the verybeginning of creation, when God
created everything, he spoke,spoke, spoke.
Then when he came to Adam, heformed him with his hands.
And it's the Bible tells us wewere made in the image of God.
That is who you are.
So whatever you see in themirror at the gym right now,
because I'm just gonna pick onthe guys that are at the gym,
like whatever you see, whetheryou like it or you don't like
(12:37):
it, God loves it.
He sees perfection.
Where you see flaws, he's like,uh-uh, that's exactly why I want
you.
Now you keep working, but wewant to do the work, but he sees
you completely made in hisimage.
And that's awesome.
And we have to remember, fellas,when we look at that
relationship with Christ, well,with God, rather, uh, the the
(12:59):
way it worked at the verybeginning.
We had God, we had Adam in thegarden, it was perfect, and then
something happened.
And that something is sin.
Sin entered the world, and sinis anything that separates us
from God.
That's all it is, fellas.
So that sin fractured therelationship with God, right?
And we we were put at thegarden, and that created this
(13:21):
massive gap.
This is where we exist rightnow.
This is the reality we live in.
We have a holy and righteousGod, and we have us here on
earth, right?
And here on earth, it's that'stough.
I mean, bad things happen.
Sales don't act right, you know,weather doesn't act right, you
know, finances, all the thingsthat can happen around us, all
these things are a result of thefall.
(13:43):
Right?
So at the end of the day,fellas, what we try to do, what
so many people get wrong, is wetry to just earn our way back to
a right standing with God.
We try to do it with giving.
We have to try to do it withhelping others, we try to do it
with going to church, we try todo it with even reading our
Bible and and and all thesethings are good things in and of
(14:06):
themselves, but they're notgonna earn our salvation because
it can't be earned, right?
The penalty of sin is death.
So for the guy out there who'sthinking, well, I just gotta be
good enough.
If I'm just good, I then I'llget to heaven.
My question to you is whodefines what good is?
Because if you're trying tocompare good, like your version
(14:28):
of good, to someone who's inprison right now, you probably
feeling pretty good aboutyourself.
You hadn't killed anybody, youhaven't committed any big
crimes, things like that, right?
But the standard's wrong.
The standard we have to holdourselves to is God.
When we start comparingourselves to a holy and
righteous God and we startlooking at us, we all fall
short, bro.
Every single one of us fallsshort of glory of God.
(14:51):
The Bible tells us that 100%.
So if we can't do it on our own,there's nothing that we can do
on ourselves.
There's nothing your mom can dofor you, or your grandma can do
for you, or dad, or your uncle,whoever.
There's nothing anyone can do onour own, for us, rather.
What can we do?
Well, we need somebody to comein and do for us what we can't
(15:12):
do for ourselves.
We need a savior.
And that's where Jesus comesinto the picture.
And that's why it's so importantto recognize the need for a
savior for what he did.
He left heaven on a rescuemission for us and died well
before he died.
He lived a perfect life.
He did all the He fulfilled allthe prophecies, he did the
(15:33):
miracles, he did the teachings,he showed us the way.
The way.
And then he went to the crossand paid the penalty for our
sin.
He didn't have to do that.
He chose to do that because heloves us so much.
And whatever you think, that sinthat defines you, whatever that
(15:54):
lie to evil one is telling youthat you're defined by, whether
it's lust or pornography ordivorce or or or bad finances,
or just you just feel likeyou're just uh no good, period.
He nailed that on the cross.
It's on the cross right now.
Let it go.
Jesus died for that sin.
(16:16):
It's there.
Then they laid his dead body,dead, not sleeping.
He was completely dead in anempty, in a t empty tomb.
Well, in a tomb.
It was it was it it was Joseph'stomb, so they laid him in a
tomb.
They wrapped him up, and thenthree days later they went back
to the tomb, and it was empty.
The stone was rolled away.
Jesus was no longer there.
(16:38):
Why?
Because he defeated death.
He overcame death.
And I don't know about you, butI'm hitching my wagon to the guy
who can defeated death.
Can't go wrong there.
And that is the savior we lookthat we serve and we worship and
we recognize to be true.
That is Jesus.
And that's the fundamentaldifference between Christianity
and the rest of these types ofreligions out there.
(16:59):
Our Savior lives.
It's such a big deal.
So, what does this mean for usas humans when we hear this and
learn this?
Well, first, very simply, youhave to have some
self-reflection.
In that time of self-reflection,you better come to the
realization, or hopefully you'llcome to the realization, that
(17:21):
you are indeed a sinner.
You are.
You're not somebody who justmade a bunch of mistakes and
needs some little coach to getbetter.
No, you are a sinner in need ofa savior.
Okay?
Then you better believe thatJesus is the Son of God.
Like fully believe that in yourheart.
And you to the only way tobelieve that is you got to start
getting in the Word and spendingtime in the Word, and then let
(17:44):
that word's going to get intoyou, and then all of a sudden
you just it's going to click.
You recognize this to be true.
Jesus is the Messiah.
Then you have to actually dosomething.
You have to confess him as Lordand Savior of your life.
Not Lord and Savior over whenthings are going well.
No, or Lord and Savior of Sundayfrom 10:30 to 12.
(18:06):
You can be my Lord then.
I'm talking about at all times.
There's never a moment wherehe's not Lord.
So whether it's in Tuesday in ameeting, Thursday night, you and
your wife sitting in the bed,Friday at a ballgame, wherever
you are, he is Lord.
You have to confess him.
You have to personally do this.
It's not something I can do foryou.
(18:28):
It's not something your familyand your loved ones can do for
you.
You can't do this for your kids.
It has to be theirs.
But you got to make thisdecision for yourself.
And if you're right now hearingmy voice, you've never accepted
Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Let's pray the prayer together.
Let's just pray right now.
Accept Him.
(18:48):
Ask Him to come into your life.
You don't have to be sitting ina church pew to do this.
Wherever you are, He's ready.
Let's just pray, Father, I'mpraying for the one person right
now who's fully recognized theyhave been disobedient.
They have not been followingyou.
They have been doing life theirway and they're tired.
They're wore out.
They're hurting.
(19:08):
So I pray you just be with thatperson as they confess you as
Lord and Savior of their life.
And Lord, I just I know the HolySpirit's going to do some
incredible things right now.
But I specifically pray for somemen to come into their life
that's going to help them, helpthem with their discipleship
journey.
And I pray you just give them asense of peace that passes all
understanding for them to knowthey can rest confidently in
you, Lord.
(19:29):
I'm just so thankful for that.
They made this decision today,right now, that they're in the
kingdom.
We love you, Lord.
We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right, so look, if you justaccept Jesus as your Lord and
Savior, I'd love to hear fromyou because I got a bunch of
resources.
I just want to give them to you.
I got 10 scriptures to fightlike a line.
I got a couple of Bible studies.
We have lots of ways we want tohelp you grow in your
(19:51):
discipleship journey.
Send me an email, Chris atthelionwithin.us.
I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to pray for you.
I'd even love to pray with you.
If you want to hop on Zoom, I'llpray with you.
I just want to be anencouragement to you in your
walk.
If you don't have a church thatyou and you're not sure even
what to look for in a church, Iwant to help send you some
resources to help get youstarted there.
So look, look again, Chris atthe lionwithin.us, send me a
(20:15):
note.
Promise I'm not going to houndyou or anything.
I just want to encourage you inyour walk with Christ, okay?
So our question of the week thisweek, guys, how much time do you
give daily to spiritualtraining?
I'm talking about every day.
What's that look like?
So think about that, reflect onthat.
Guys, our next episode is goingto be a lot of fun.
We have a great guest if you'regoing to enjoy this conversation
(20:36):
around discipleship.
But again, go to thelinewithin.us, check out all the
resources.
Please consider joining thedaily spiritual kickoff.
That's free or the weekly roar.
That's our our weekly little bitof, it's not really a
newsletter, it's just areflection.
But guys, find a lot ofencouragement in it.
We got a couple thousand guysthat have signed up for it.
So, guys, go check that out.
Love for you to be take part ofthat.
(20:58):
Uh, and then join a community.
Start your 30-day free trial ofthe community.
Get started with that.
That gives you access to ourapp, the different ways we
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Guys, we have live events everyyear.
We have so many things.
We got our book, we got ourBible reading plans on the Bible
app.
So many things are out there,fellas, but it all can be found.
(21:18):
Central location, theLionwithin.us.
That's where you find it at,okay?
All right, fellas.
Well, thank you so much forhanging out.
Give us a rating and review.
Do look forward to the nextepisode.
I think you guys are going toenjoy this conversation.
So have a great day.
Get after.
If I can serve in any way, youknow where to find me, and you
know what's coming.
Just keep unleashing the lionwithin.
(21:42):
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(22:04):
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(22:26):
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So grab the format that fits andtake your next step.
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast for
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, spiritualkickoff time.
Let's get into it.
Okay.
So the scripture of the weekthis week is in the book of 1
Timothy, the fourth chapter, theeighth verse.
It says, for physical trainingis of some value, but godliness
(02:05):
has value for all things,holding promise for both the
present life and the life tocome.
Okay, so man, powerful verse.
We're going to see how we cansimplify and apply that to our
life.
And again, if you enjoy how wedo this on our spiritual kickoff
episodes, guys, Monday throughFriday, we do it within our
community at the Lion Within Us.
Go get started.
(02:26):
We call it the Daily SpiritualKickoff.
So if you head over tothelionwithin.us and look and
you see something up the top, orthere's even places throughout
the site that says dailyspiritual kickoff, click it.
Sign up for it.
It's free.
We try to do this.
It also unlocks our prayer, uhour prayer request area of the
community.
And guys, that gets the mostattention out of everything that
(02:49):
we do.
Which praise the Lord.
I want it to because that's whatwe're going to battle on behalf
of the kingdom for others,fellas.
All that's found atthelionwithin.us.
Get started today.
I'm telling you, your dailyspiritual kickoff.
Okay.
So, first of all, when we startthinking about this scripture,
we need to understand, you know,I don't want to take anything
for granted.
Where is the book of 1 Timothy?
Okay.
(03:09):
So don't, if you don't know,it's okay.
It's in the New Testament.
Okay.
It's going to be just go pastthe gospels and Acts and Romans
and Corinthians and all thatstuff.
Then after 2 Thessalonians,you'll find 1 Timothy.
If you get to 2 Timothy, justback up a little bit, okay?
You're right there.
So that's where it's at.
(03:30):
The Apostle Paul wrote this toTimothy.
That's why I talk a lot abouthaving your own Timothy in your
life.
And this whole week we're goingto be talking about training,
discipleship, coaching.
And most the reason I likethinking about training is
because most guys get theconcept of training, right?
Think about when you walk to agym, right?
(03:52):
You know you would never walk inthe gym if you haven't been
there for maybe let's say acouple presidents.
Okay.
You haven't been there for awhile.
You don't walk into that gym andthrow 300 pounds up on a bar and
sit up underneath there on abench press and expect to push
it up.
You just don't.
I mean, that would be kind oflike unbelievable if you could
do that.
Why?
(04:12):
Well, strength doesn't appearovernight.
Think about that.
The result of strength isbecause you start showing up.
You grind it out.
You build the habits that areleading to the gains.
And you're, you're, you're,you're pushing yourself, right?
And you're doing it for apurpose so that you can get
stronger.
(04:32):
But there's a little tension,particularly when it comes to
our spiritual lives.
Many of us have have, for somereason, expect to walk in power
without putting in the effort.
Like, wait a minute, bro.
Like, oh, Joke is in everybodywants to be strong, nobody wants
to be sore.
Right?
We want peace and chaos,strength and trials.
(04:56):
We want clarity and decisions,but we haven't trained our
hearts to endure or our minds todiscern.
You see the struggle there?
And what Paul is challenging,Timothy, right here, is very it
speaks loudly, particularly forus as Christian men, because
that that's physical training isimportant for sure.
But we better be training inguidelines, which is infinitely
(05:19):
more valuable because it shapeswho we are and who we'll be for
eternity, fellas.
This is such a big deal.
And there's a decision trap thatexists.
And Paul's warning us righthere.
He's warning in the versebefore, before seven, he's
talking about worldly fables.
Right.
And which, which we translatethat to the way that we live
(05:40):
today, uh, it could be lookinglike the endless scrolling we do
on Instagram or TikTok orFacebook.
I mean, just think about howmuch time is wasted consuming
content that does not build usin godliness.
I mean, just think about it.
It's scary.
And what if we approached ourwalk with God with the same
consistency and intentionalitythat we approach the gym, or
(06:04):
maybe you approach fantasyfootball or social media, like
it just whatever that thing isthat you're passionate about,
what if you put that same levelof passion and intentionality
around your discipleshipjourney?
It would change everything.
And here's the deal an evil onedoesn't need to destroy us
outright, right?
(06:24):
He just needs to distract us.
He just needs us distracted longenough so that we never put in
the effort to build spiritualmuscle.
Because I'm gonna tell you atthe end of the day, boys, uh,
discipleship is hard.
It just is.
It takes work, it takes time, ittakes accountability, it takes
effort.
But just like the gym, theresults show up when we're
(06:46):
consistent.
And that's what Paul's trying toshow us here.
So we have to train beyond thegym.
Like, so how do we the questionshould be okay, all right, God?
So how do I train forrighteousness?
Like, what what do I do?
How do I train to be godly?
Well, you start making thedecision daily to first delight
in the Lord, and then you startadding that discipline to our
(07:08):
lives to what matters most.
Again, nobody's gonna get strongby accident.
Nobody.
You're not just gonnaaccidentally wake up and be able
to bench press a Buick.
It doesn't happen.
It's just not possible.
And no one's gonna grow closerto Christ just by coasting.
And I'm sorry if that if thatfalls wrong on some ears out
there, but you're not gonna growcloser to Christ by coasting by.
(07:32):
You gotta fight, you gotta putin the work, you gotta build it,
right?
So I'm gonna give you a couplethings to consider.
As you're trying to thinkthrough, okay, how can I
spiritually exercise and trainup?
Hey, number one, you betterstart with some daily scripture
reps.
Okay, just think about reps thatbuild muscles in the gym, right?
(07:53):
Same thing with God's word.
Consistency, that time in hisword, that builds spiritual
strength.
Maybe start with a chapter or acouple verses, but read it,
reflect on it, and then how canyou apply it?
Again, this is why we do thespiritual kickoff, helping you
simplify God's word, and thenapply it.
And then how about prayer?
(08:14):
Consider laps.
Like uh if you're if you'rewriting laps in a gym, you're
doing that for conditioning,right?
Prayer is your conditioning,right?
So not just praying at meals,but praying through the death
today, like always talking toGod, inviting him in, talk to
him while you're driving, whenyou're walking, when you're
working out, when you're layingdown, wherever you're at.
Keep the line open with God.
(08:36):
And then you better have anaccountability spot, all right?
You would never go under in agym and sit underneath a bench
with a weight that you do notknow that you can comfortably
push, right?
If you're gonna push yourselfwith a weight that's that's
heavier than what you think youcan do, you're gonna get what?
Yo, bro, can you come spot me?
The same thing is needed in ourdiscipleship journey.
(08:59):
Because we have to surroundourselves with brothers in
Christ who are gonna call usout, who are gonna push us
forward, who are gonna lift usup when we stumble.
And here's the thing, guys,they're not the guys that are
just gonna be our yes men.
It's like, yeah, just keep doingit your way, bro.
It's okay.
It'll probably be okay.
We don't need those types ofguys.
We don't need yes men.
We have plenty of those outthere.
We need true accountabilityspotters.
(09:22):
Okay.
And then that should lead us toserving.
Think about sets, like um theway you do different sets in the
gym, like you know, uh uhsupersets and things like that.
You do that to build strength.
If you have strength, but youdon't use it, it's wasted.
Absolutely waste it.
If you're doing the workout in agym just to look good in the
(09:44):
mirror, what a waste, bro.
No, for us, we put in thespiritual work so that we can
serve our community, we canserve our church, we can serve
our family, right?
This is how we can flex off andshow our faith and grow.
And this, again, it all does washumility at the same time.
And then the fifth exercise andthe last one, fellas, to
(10:05):
consider resting.
Like rest in Christ.
I don't care who you the bestathlete on the planet, they take
times to recover.
They do.
So we got to build the rhythmsas well as Christians to have
that Sabbath rest, right?
We we shut off the distractionsand we are just fully embracing
the peace of God.
(10:26):
Renewal is part of the training,fellas.
It all goes together, okay?
So right here, there's good newswhen we look at this verse,
okay.
The training isn't just fortoday's benefit, okay?
Paul reminds us, he tells us,godliness holds promise for this
(10:47):
life that we're living right nowand the life to come.
And that should bring us a lotof encouragement.
Because in a world out there,fellas, that is starving for
hope and peace, the only placewe're ever gonna find that is in
Jesus.
He is it.
And training for guiding this,the way we that Paul is telling
(11:08):
us here, produces that strengththat lasts anything besides you
can build in the gym or yourcareer or even your life.
So we have to really think aboutwhat are we training for?
Are we putting in the effort fortemporary strength to look good
in a mirror to trust to impresssomeone like how we look in a
bathing soup?
Or are we pursuing eternal gainsby daily walking and pushing
(11:32):
ourselves to walk closer withJesus?
Now the gym has its place.
Don't give up on the gym, boys.
We know it that line within us,we're all about taking care of
our physical bodies.
But the true test of the man isnot how much he can lift, right?
It's whether he's letting Christlift him and lead his life.
That's it.
I mean, are we fully surrenderedto the Lordship of Jesus Christ
(11:52):
and are we letting him lead us?
That's the big difference.
That's the big difference.
And look, if you've neversurrendered your life to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, andyou're like, what in the wild
world sports is this guy talkingabout?
I'm telling you, fellas, you'rehere for a reason.
And I don't know, maybe you justyou you found this type of this
verse and you're just curious,whatever it may be.
(12:15):
Please hear me.
You you are made in the image ofGod.
And if we go back to the verybeginning of creation, when God
created everything, he spoke,spoke, spoke.
Then when he came to Adam, heformed him with his hands.
And it's the Bible tells us wewere made in the image of God.
That is who you are.
So whatever you see in themirror at the gym right now,
because I'm just gonna pick onthe guys that are at the gym,
like whatever you see, whetheryou like it or you don't like
(12:37):
it, God loves it.
He sees perfection.
Where you see flaws, he's like,uh-uh, that's exactly why I want
you.
Now you keep working, but wewant to do the work, but he sees
you completely made in hisimage.
And that's awesome.
And we have to remember, fellas,when we look at that
relationship with Christ, well,with God, rather, uh, the the
(12:59):
way it worked at the verybeginning.
We had God, we had Adam in thegarden, it was perfect, and then
something happened.
And that something is sin.
Sin entered the world, and sinis anything that separates us
from God.
That's all it is, fellas.
So that sin fractured therelationship with God, right?
And we we were put at thegarden, and that created this
(13:21):
massive gap.
This is where we exist rightnow.
This is the reality we live in.
We have a holy and righteousGod, and we have us here on
earth, right?
And here on earth, it's that'stough.
I mean, bad things happen.
Sales don't act right, you know,weather doesn't act right, you
know, finances, all the thingsthat can happen around us, all
these things are a result of thefall.
(13:43):
Right?
So at the end of the day,fellas, what we try to do, what
so many people get wrong, is wetry to just earn our way back to
a right standing with God.
We try to do it with giving.
We have to try to do it withhelping others, we try to do it
with going to church, we try todo it with even reading our
Bible and and and all thesethings are good things in and of
(14:06):
themselves, but they're notgonna earn our salvation because
it can't be earned, right?
The penalty of sin is death.
So for the guy out there who'sthinking, well, I just gotta be
good enough.
If I'm just good, I then I'llget to heaven.
My question to you is whodefines what good is?
Because if you're trying tocompare good, like your version
(14:28):
of good, to someone who's inprison right now, you probably
feeling pretty good aboutyourself.
You hadn't killed anybody, youhaven't committed any big
crimes, things like that, right?
But the standard's wrong.
The standard we have to holdourselves to is God.
When we start comparingourselves to a holy and
righteous God and we startlooking at us, we all fall
short, bro.
Every single one of us fallsshort of glory of God.
(14:51):
The Bible tells us that 100%.
So if we can't do it on our own,there's nothing that we can do
on ourselves.
There's nothing your mom can dofor you, or your grandma can do
for you, or dad, or your uncle,whoever.
There's nothing anyone can do onour own, for us, rather.
What can we do?
Well, we need somebody to comein and do for us what we can't
(15:12):
do for ourselves.
We need a savior.
And that's where Jesus comesinto the picture.
And that's why it's so importantto recognize the need for a
savior for what he did.
He left heaven on a rescuemission for us and died well
before he died.
He lived a perfect life.
He did all the He fulfilled allthe prophecies, he did the
(15:33):
miracles, he did the teachings,he showed us the way.
The way.
And then he went to the crossand paid the penalty for our
sin.
He didn't have to do that.
He chose to do that because heloves us so much.
And whatever you think, that sinthat defines you, whatever that
(15:54):
lie to evil one is telling youthat you're defined by, whether
it's lust or pornography ordivorce or or or bad finances,
or just you just feel likeyou're just uh no good, period.
He nailed that on the cross.
It's on the cross right now.
Let it go.
Jesus died for that sin.
(16:16):
It's there.
Then they laid his dead body,dead, not sleeping.
He was completely dead in anempty, in a t empty tomb.
Well, in a tomb.
It was it was it it was Joseph'stomb, so they laid him in a
tomb.
They wrapped him up, and thenthree days later they went back
to the tomb, and it was empty.
The stone was rolled away.
Jesus was no longer there.
(16:38):
Why?
Because he defeated death.
He overcame death.
And I don't know about you, butI'm hitching my wagon to the guy
who can defeated death.
Can't go wrong there.
And that is the savior we lookthat we serve and we worship and
we recognize to be true.
That is Jesus.
And that's the fundamentaldifference between Christianity
and the rest of these types ofreligions out there.
(16:59):
Our Savior lives.
It's such a big deal.
So, what does this mean for usas humans when we hear this and
learn this?
Well, first, very simply, youhave to have some
self-reflection.
In that time of self-reflection,you better come to the
realization, or hopefully you'llcome to the realization, that
(17:21):
you are indeed a sinner.
You are.
You're not somebody who justmade a bunch of mistakes and
needs some little coach to getbetter.
No, you are a sinner in need ofa savior.
Okay?
Then you better believe thatJesus is the Son of God.
Like fully believe that in yourheart.
And you to the only way tobelieve that is you got to start
getting in the Word and spendingtime in the Word, and then let
(17:44):
that word's going to get intoyou, and then all of a sudden
you just it's going to click.
You recognize this to be true.
Jesus is the Messiah.
Then you have to actually dosomething.
You have to confess him as Lordand Savior of your life.
Not Lord and Savior over whenthings are going well.
No, or Lord and Savior of Sundayfrom 10:30 to 12.
(18:06):
You can be my Lord then.
I'm talking about at all times.
There's never a moment wherehe's not Lord.
So whether it's in Tuesday in ameeting, Thursday night, you and
your wife sitting in the bed,Friday at a ballgame, wherever
you are, he is Lord.
You have to confess him.
You have to personally do this.
It's not something I can do foryou.
(18:28):
It's not something your familyand your loved ones can do for
you.
You can't do this for your kids.
It has to be theirs.
But you got to make thisdecision for yourself.
And if you're right now hearingmy voice, you've never accepted
Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Let's pray the prayer together.
Let's just pray right now.
Accept Him.
(18:48):
Ask Him to come into your life.
You don't have to be sitting ina church pew to do this.
Wherever you are, He's ready.
Let's just pray, Father, I'mpraying for the one person right
now who's fully recognized theyhave been disobedient.
They have not been followingyou.
They have been doing life theirway and they're tired.
They're wore out.
They're hurting.
(19:08):
So I pray you just be with thatperson as they confess you as
Lord and Savior of their life.
And Lord, I just I know the HolySpirit's going to do some
incredible things right now.
But I specifically pray for somemen to come into their life
that's going to help them, helpthem with their discipleship
journey.
And I pray you just give them asense of peace that passes all
understanding for them to knowthey can rest confidently in
you, Lord.
(19:29):
I'm just so thankful for that.
They made this decision today,right now, that they're in the
kingdom.
We love you, Lord.
We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right, so look, if you justaccept Jesus as your Lord and
Savior, I'd love to hear fromyou because I got a bunch of
resources.
I just want to give them to you.
I got 10 scriptures to fightlike a line.
I got a couple of Bible studies.
We have lots of ways we want tohelp you grow in your
(19:51):
discipleship journey.
Send me an email, Chris atthelionwithin.us.
I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to pray for you.
I'd even love to pray with you.
If you want to hop on Zoom, I'llpray with you.
I just want to be anencouragement to you in your
walk.
If you don't have a church thatyou and you're not sure even
what to look for in a church, Iwant to help send you some
resources to help get youstarted there.
So look, look again, Chris atthe lionwithin.us, send me a
(20:15):
note.
Promise I'm not going to houndyou or anything.
I just want to encourage you inyour walk with Christ, okay?
So our question of the week thisweek, guys, how much time do you
give daily to spiritualtraining?
I'm talking about every day.
What's that look like?
So think about that, reflect onthat.
Guys, our next episode is goingto be a lot of fun.
We have a great guest if you'regoing to enjoy this conversation
(20:36):
around discipleship.
But again, go to thelinewithin.us, check out all the
resources.
Please consider joining thedaily spiritual kickoff.
That's free or the weekly roar.
That's our our weekly little bitof, it's not really a
newsletter, it's just areflection.
But guys, find a lot ofencouragement in it.
We got a couple thousand guysthat have signed up for it.
So, guys, go check that out.
Love for you to be take part ofthat.
(20:58):
Uh, and then join a community.
Start your 30-day free trial ofthe community.
Get started with that.
That gives you access to ourapp, the different ways we
encourage guys, the events thatwe have.
Guys, we have live events everyyear.
We have so many things.
We got our book, we got ourBible reading plans on the Bible
app.
So many things are out there,fellas, but it all can be found.
(21:18):
Central location, theLionwithin.us.
That's where you find it at,okay?
All right, fellas.
Well, thank you so much forhanging out.
Give us a rating and review.
Do look forward to the nextepisode.
I think you guys are going toenjoy this conversation.
So have a great day.
Get after.
If I can serve in any way, youknow where to find me, and you
know what's coming.
Just keep unleashing the lionwithin.
(21:42):
If you're like me, you don'tneed another book just sitting
around collecting dust.
What I enjoy is something tohelp guide me when my feet hit
the ground in the mornings.
And that is why we put togetherUnleashing the Lion Within.
It has honest stories, scriptureyou can apply, and simple steps
to help you lead at home, atwork, and everywhere in between.
(22:04):
So if you've been feeling stuckor scattered lately, you may
find this resource encouraging.
Read a few pages.
Take one step and watch what Goddoes with your obedience.
Hey, and if reading's tough foryou right now, no problem.
The book is also available inAudible version so you can
listen on the go.
(22:26):
So if this sounds interesting,check out the LionWithin.us
slash book or search forunleashing the lion within
directly on Amazon.
So there's no pressure here,just a resource that many guys
are finding helpful.
So grab the format that fits andtake your next step.
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