1:11

Welcome to the Lion Within Us , a podcast serving

1:13

Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends

1:15

you to be . I'm your host , chris Cringer . Let's

1:18

jump in . All right , guys , it is your spiritual

1:20

kickoff episode . I'm excited

1:22

to be here . Let's get the week started right

1:24

, okay ? So now we're in the book of John this week , so

1:26

open up to the Gospel of John . Unless you're driving

1:28

on a road , don't open up anything . I want you

1:30

to rec , okay . So Gospel of John

1:33

, chapter 3 , verse 22 is what

1:35

we're looking at . It's one verse . It says after

1:37

this , jesus and his disciples went out

1:39

to the Judean countryside

1:41

where he spent some time with them and

1:43

baptized . So we're going to look at this

1:45

. We're going to see how we can simplify and apply this

1:47

one little verse to our life . All

1:50

right , you ready , let's jump in and hold on . So

1:52

now , first thing , we need to know where is the book of John

1:54

. So this is New Testament , and I know

1:56

this is fundamental stuff for a lot of you guys , but it's

1:58

not for everybody . So chill out , okay , this

2:01

is New Testament . It's the last

2:03

quote , unquote gospel , okay . So

2:05

, if you get the axe , you went too far Back

2:07

up a little bit . So this is the Gospel

2:09

according to John . Of course , john wrote John 1

2:11

, 2 , 3 John , and then he wrote Revelation

2:14

, not revelations . He wrote Revelation

2:16

. It was only one revelation . Okay . Now

2:18

this verse right here 322

2:20

, comes on the heels of

2:23

the powerful meaning that Jesus had

2:25

with Nicodemus . You guys remember all that . Of

2:27

course , you got John 3 , 16 , for God so loved to

2:29

rule him out . All that was in there , right , but

2:32

he shared the ultimate truth with them and that ultimate

2:34

truth would change the world as we know it . Now

2:37

, in this verse , we need

2:39

to lock you in an area that

2:41

is so , so , so

2:43

often missed on many people's

2:45

Christian journeys Discipleship

2:50

, discipleship . We know by studying scripture

2:53

that discipleship was a huge part

2:55

of Jesus' ministry , but we treat

2:57

this the same way as we do honoring the Sabbath . We

3:00

just ignore it and we justify it because you know the

3:02

same lies that we tell ourselves . We just

3:04

we're not going to worry about this because this

3:06

is this is . This is for something else , this

3:09

is just for top level Christians , and

3:11

to me it's like the lies we believe

3:14

sometimes just make no sense , no

3:17

sense that we will tell ourselves

3:19

these things . So we're trying to rationalize something . Remember

3:21

, if you're trying to rationalize anything , you're

3:23

just trying to make rationalize . But

3:25

this heat hits me hard because

3:28

when I gave my life to crisis 16 , I

3:31

had no one to come alongside me to

3:33

disciple me . I really

3:36

struggled . I really struggled , I drifted

3:38

in many areas and when

3:40

you're left to figure out things on your own , hey

3:42

, usually we make terrible decisions and

3:45

that , for me , that just manifested itself in doing many

3:48

years of doing things my way . I got this

3:50

. You know I'm going to . I'm going

3:52

to do it my way and by

3:54

doing that , I missed the grace train of Jesus for

3:57

far too long . Far too long

3:59

. And we overcomplicate

4:01

stuff Guys , I know I do we definitely

4:04

overcome . When it comes to items

4:06

like faith or religion , we can very easily

4:08

overcomplicate it , and this one

4:10

verse has seven words , seven

4:13

words that clear it all up for them . They

4:16

clear up the concept of discipleship , of

4:18

everything , and I'm praying that these seven words

4:20

help you . Where

4:22

he spent some time with them

4:24

, that's it when

4:27

he spent some time with

4:29

them . What

4:31

simple words , but

4:34

what profound impact . Think

4:37

about it for a minute . The disciples

4:39

, these guys had

4:41

left all they knew to follow Jesus

4:44

and

4:46

had he only talked to them when

4:48

he was quote unquote teaching and

4:50

preaching . That

4:52

would have provided a little bit of growth . Let's

4:55

just be real , because Jesus , when he's teaching and preaching

4:57

, that was phenomenal . But

5:00

what Jesus shows us right here is

5:02

discipleship is more about the relationship

5:05

than anything else . The

5:07

time he spent with the disciples was crucial

5:10

, crucial for their growth

5:12

, particularly

5:14

their development as leaders . Now

5:17

, remember , he was the Messiah . His mission

5:20

, jesus's mission , was the most

5:22

critical mission ever to be attempted . Yet

5:24

he chose to lean into and

5:27

focus on the relationships with these

5:29

guys on an intentional basis

5:31

. And I don't know about you , but

5:33

that blows my mind , because

5:36

discipleship think about this for a second

5:38

starts with sacrifice

5:40

, and that sacrifice

5:43

is for the man in the mirror . It's

5:46

got to start with you . It

5:48

can't always be about you . It

5:50

can't be If you want to honor the Lord . If

5:52

I got it , it can't be about you . That means you

5:54

have to care and actually serve others . It

5:56

has to be above any personal agenda that

5:58

you have out there . Anything . Practically

6:01

, maybe it looks like being consistent in

6:04

someone's life . Consistent

6:07

in someone's life . How

6:10

about accountability ? You

6:12

couple consistency with accountability

6:14

. That's powerful . When

6:17

you have accountability done right , that's

6:19

a superpower . I'm telling you , fellas

6:22

, that is a superpower for discipleship that

6:24

when you have accountability done the correct way , it

6:26

accelerates things . I will tell

6:28

you right now do not expect your church to do this for

6:31

you . Do not have

6:33

your church to do it . They're not going to get it right . Some

6:35

of them may get it right , but most of them struggle

6:37

in this area . This is something that you need

6:40

to lean into . They may have outlets , they

6:42

may have groups to get it started , but discipleship

6:44

is an individual journey that

6:47

you each have to take . It takes

6:49

effort . It means showing up when

6:52

things aren't always the best time to show

6:54

up . It also

6:56

means being transparent , being real

6:58

, being authentic . Leave fake you at home . Fake

7:00

you is doing just fine when you show up for discipleship

7:03

and you're leading in that . You got to be real . This

7:06

is not about silly vanity metrics , anything

7:08

like that . Followers or friends or social

7:10

media know that junk matters . This

7:12

is all about authentic relationships

7:15

Authentic . How

7:17

many authentic relationships do you have ? And

7:21

those authentic relationships are a result of the

7:23

time you spend together . You can't take that out , so

7:27

you have to start taking discipleship seriously

7:30

and , instead of waiting

7:32

on someone to kickstart the process

7:34

, instead , why don't you take the lead ? Why

7:36

don't you take the lead and begin your own discipleship

7:39

journey ? Set your

7:41

own goals . It

7:43

may start very simple as

7:46

you and one old man

7:48

meeting each week , sharing

7:52

per requests , praying , reading

7:54

the Bible and talking about life . From

7:57

there , just keep leading in and see how God moves

7:59

. You know what he's going to do incredible things that

8:02

you're never even thinking of right now , because he's

8:04

waiting for you to take that one step of a means , just

8:06

that one step forward . If you just take that

8:08

one step forward , you can be amazed at what

8:10

God does . Just amazed

8:12

, because discipleship is

8:14

not something that you can ignore , because

8:17

you need to choose your heart . Fellas , you have to choose

8:19

your heart . So it looks like this

8:21

you can either struggle through

8:23

the ways of the world alone and

8:26

hope you guess right and sometimes let's just

8:28

be honest sometimes you will . You're going

8:30

to guess right , you're going to choose the right path , things

8:32

are going to work out , all this stuff happens right

8:34

. So that's choice

8:36

one . Or you

8:39

can begin your discipleship journey

8:41

right now and

8:43

you can sit back and see and

8:45

watch how God teaches and equips

8:48

you for the battle that you're

8:50

going to face each and every day and

8:52

you are in a battle , and we have to remember the

8:55

battle that we're in . It's

8:58

not against the flesh and blood , no , it's from the

9:00

evil and the principalities of this world . We

9:02

have armor , and just think about that

9:04

armor for a second . You

9:06

have the breastplate of righteousness . You

9:09

have to build a truth Right . You

9:12

have the shield of faith . You have the helmet of salvation . That's

9:14

the sword spirit , but you also had the feet

9:16

to try to build the gospel of peace

9:18

. I was thinking

9:21

about that . The guest this week

9:23

is going to really challenge you around that

9:25

Are you walking

9:27

around shoeless ? You

9:29

don't have your shoes on . He brings us up , so he'll

9:31

get all the credit on this . You got to come back

9:33

on Wednesday and check it out . Or you walk around

9:35

shoeless Because when you choose

9:38

to surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ , that

9:40

means you want to do all you can to spend time

9:42

with Him each and every day , spending

9:44

time in His Word , praying

9:47

, obviously , memorizing

9:49

verses , and this is not

9:51

just a one and done thing . No , this is over

9:53

and over and over . You

9:56

develop this craving , this desire

9:58

, this earning to

10:00

be with Him , to abide

10:02

. I've been studying that word lately . That

10:04

abide means intimacy . You

10:08

crave that time with Him because

10:11

you know , when you're in the Word and you're studying , the Holy

10:13

Spirit is guiding and directing you and

10:15

revealing things to you in Scripture you never had before

10:17

. It's amazing , and you

10:19

can read the Bible over and over and over and guess

10:21

what it always changes . It

10:23

always reveals something new . Oh

10:26

, look at that . I never picked that up out

10:28

of that verse before . Wow , this has

10:30

been here . I literally underlined everything

10:32

around this , but now this verse jumps out

10:35

. That's the way the God's Word

10:37

works . But

10:39

you're never going to get those aha moments

10:41

if

10:43

you're not taking intentional

10:45

time each and every day to spending His

10:47

Word . We're just throw podcasts

10:50

on it that make much of Him

10:52

and listen to sermons and listen to

10:54

people explaining God's Word , whatever

10:56

you have to do to grow closer to Him . But

10:59

that discipleship starts with you and

11:02

someone else , knee to knee , eyeball

11:04

to eyeball , being

11:07

real , being authentic , being transparent

11:09

, and that takes from commitment

11:12

. You have to figure

11:14

out what that looks like so far as the timing and stuff

11:16

like that . What does that look like ? Is this a weekly thing

11:18

? Is it bi-weekly ? Is it monthly ? I'll

11:20

just encourage you here Whatever you

11:22

think it needs to be go more , just

11:26

go more . You're never going

11:28

to make a mistake spending

11:30

more time in God's Word and

11:32

the fellowship of Christian believers Just

11:34

not Never will make a mistake there

11:37

. So lean into it , lean

11:39

into the more . Lean into it . Take

11:41

discipleship seriously . You

11:44

cannot outsource this . No

11:46

, this is not a time that you can get to . No

11:49

, you have to go in and take

11:51

discipleship and you have to own it . This

11:53

is an area I'm going to get better I'm

11:55

going to focus on . Here's what I'm

11:57

going to do to

12:00

grow closer to Christ . I'm

12:02

going to make sure that my counter is reflective

12:04

of what's important to me as a Christian

12:07

man , and that means you know what I

12:09

need to be growing as a disciple of him , and I need to be

12:11

growing other disciples as well . Okay

12:14

, tony Phelps , when you start changing

12:16

, when you start thinking about this way , it's going to change

12:18

everything . I want you to think about this what

12:21

does disciple mean to you ? Have

12:23

you ever thought about that before ? Well

12:25

, it's just something that you put off for the holy , holy

12:27

, those guys who are going

12:30

to seminary , or whatever it may be . I'm just here to tell you . Do

12:32

you think you need to go to seminary to be a disciple ? You're

12:34

completely , completely wrong . No

12:36

, does God call you to seminary ? Should you go

12:39

? Yep , do you have to go to seminary to be a disciple

12:41

? Absolutely not . You just need to follow

12:43

Christ each and every day and make a commitment

12:45

to growing closer and closer to him . And time

12:47

is where pray , listen , do all the things

12:49

we've talked about . You're going to rely on within us . That's

12:51

how you grow as a disciple . Don't let anyone

12:54

fool you . You are equipped

12:56

. You are God's

12:59

equipped . You right now you can . All it takes

13:01

to help another person is just to be one step

13:03

ahead . You

13:05

don't have to be a deep theologian

13:07

to help some person become a know and

13:09

grow in their walk in Christ . No , but

13:12

as you grow in your knowledge and

13:14

your willingness , he's going to do incredible things

13:16

, and that's what I want for you . For

13:19

that you never surrendered your life to Christ . You

13:23

listen to the lion with Dennis . Hey , you're here

13:25

for some reason . Maybe it's just , I

13:28

don't know , maybe it just popped up in your feed . You're like how

13:30

check this up ? Just this podcast out , and

13:32

you're liking what you're hearing so far . I was

13:34

here today . If you've never started your life to worship

13:36

Christ . I want

13:39

you to really think long and hard

13:41

about . Do

13:43

you really even know what it is ? Do you know what

13:45

being a Christian is ? I mean , I hear

13:47

people talk about being a Christian all the time , and aren't they just a

13:49

bunch of hypocrites who walk around and do it ? Yes , by

13:52

the way , yes , we are watching hypocrites , but here's

13:54

the here's the deal . We

13:56

recognize one thing that we

13:58

are made of the image of God , and if you're hearing

14:00

my words right

14:02

now , I need you to know this you are made

14:05

in the image of God

14:07

. You may think you're broken . You

14:09

may think that you have all these things wrong with you . You

14:11

may think that there's no good in you whatsoever

14:13

. I'm here to tell you God is not making any mistakes . He

14:15

doesn't make any false and everything

14:18

about you he knit

14:20

together in your mother's

14:22

womb because he wants you to be

14:24

just like you are and

14:26

you're perfect in his eyes and

14:28

he loves you . This guy

14:30

doesn't make any mistakes and

14:33

recognize you're made in the image of God , but

14:35

also need to recognize there's just one problem Sin

14:38

. Sin into the world and

14:41

sin separates us from him and

14:43

compared to people who are in prison or Hitler

14:47

or somebody's other people that you want to pay yourself to . Yeah

14:49

, you're probably a pretty good dude or girl . You probably

14:51

are , but compared to the holy , righteous

14:53

God , unfortunately , we all fall short , including

14:56

me , All of us . We all fall short

14:58

. No one , no

15:00

one , could

15:02

satisfy that the

15:04

only one was Christ . So

15:06

we all fall short of the glory of God . No

15:10

need to recognize that Jesus , since when

15:12

there is this gap of sin , we

15:14

are made his image . But we this has been fractured

15:16

. Now we have this gap , this gap of

15:19

sin in our life that we can't get to him . How

15:22

you go , get there , can't work your way

15:24

in . There's no such thing as workspace , righteousness

15:26

, any answer that you have on how

15:29

you , why should you get this to heaven ? That starts

15:31

with I . You're wrong . Immediately

15:33

you're wrong . This is not a first person problem

15:35

. We need a third person solution

15:38

. That third person in Jesus , that's

15:40

it . We don't need a coach , we don't need somebody

15:42

to pass on the back . We need a savior . A

15:44

savior to pull us out of this highway

15:48

to hell that we're on . He did

15:50

, he came from heaven on a rescue

15:52

mission for you , for me , felt the entire world

15:54

. He lived , he taught , he did all the

15:56

things he did , the parables , the teachings

15:58

, the miracles , the phenomenal stuff . You'll

16:00

know a whole lot about Jesus , re , matthew , mark , luke and John

16:02

. Just read over and over and over and over and over

16:04

. Just let the gospel just soak into you

16:06

. Then he went to the cross and he

16:08

paid the ultimate penalty for your sin and for my sin

16:10

. On that cross he

16:13

died and

16:15

he paid the penalty , the , the , the propitiation

16:18

. He was paid in full . He did everything

16:20

, the payment it satisfies . He did it

16:22

because we

16:24

can't . Then

16:26

, three days after dying , he rose

16:28

and that is who we serve

16:30

. We don't serve some dead guy to him somewhere . No

16:32

, we were . We serve and we worship

16:35

a living savior . You have

16:37

to believe this with all your heart . Once you believe

16:39

this is all your heart , I'm telling you this is the

16:41

next step is where most people trip up . You

16:43

got to confess it was Lord . I mean

16:45

Lord over your entire life , not just Lord over

16:48

Sunday . I'm talking about Lord of your

16:50

entire life , everything that you

16:52

have going on , everything . He's

16:54

got to be Lord and once you do

16:56

that , the Holy Spirit will come and dwell

16:59

. You have a new heart . He's going to God direct

17:01

. He's going to give you wisdom and discernment . It's

17:03

just going to be amazing . Is it going

17:05

to be easy ? Nope , but it will

17:07

be better . It will be better

17:09

and that's why you need disciples We've been

17:11

talking about today to come alongside you

17:13

, to guide you , to direct you , to teach you the new things about

17:16

scriptures , to show you these things , to help encourage

17:18

you , to answer your questions , to help you grow . But

17:22

it starts not making that decision to surrender your life

17:24

to the Lord . You be Christ . If

17:26

you're listening to my voice , right now you have it and

17:29

you feel like right now it's the time . I

17:32

can't believe I'm a certain amount of surrender my life to the Lord

17:34

For Christ to listen to a podcast . There's no way God

17:38

does groups of amazing things , so

17:40

I can tell you he can do some amazing

17:42

things . So if you're right now , you're

17:44

on that point , you're listening and you're ready to

17:46

surrender , let's pray , I just pray for

17:48

that listening right there , right

17:51

now , who's ready to make that decision

17:53

to follow you . I just pray . You be with them , give

17:55

them wisdom , give them encouragement . Give

17:58

them encouragement to take that step , to just surrender

18:00

to you , just knowing , lord , that they don't have to have all

18:02

the answers , because you do , and

18:04

it starts by this one step of obedience

18:06

and I pray it has protection around them after

18:08

they take this step of obedience to put some people

18:11

in their life , to help build them

18:13

up . Just go , help disciple them , help make

18:15

much of you and

18:17

draw them closer to you . During this process , god

18:19

, I just so thankful for this opportunity , so thankful

18:21

for your work , so thankful for the gospel , which

18:24

none of us deserve , but we are so eternally

18:26

grateful for it , for the grace that you pour out for

18:28

us each and every day . We love you , lord Jesus

18:31

, we praise you as in your name , we pray Amen

18:33

, all right . So if

18:35

you just surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ , I want you to send me an email at chris

18:37

at the lion , with the end dot us , because I'm going to hook you up with

18:39

a bunch of free stuff , some free things around Bible

18:42

study resources and guys , because you need some

18:44

stuff . You got to have some stuff to get ready

18:46

, to get equipped for this battle that you're going

18:48

to walk into . So again , chris

18:50

at the lion , with the end dot us , I'm going to get you hooked right

18:52

up . Also want to pray with you , just to be intentional about

18:54

that . So I'd love to hear from you . Okay

18:57

, so now , fellas

18:59

, discipleships a big deal . We'll make

19:01

a whole lot about this this week . The

19:03

conversation on Wednesday is going to go . I mean

19:05

, this guy's going to go hard , he's

19:08

going to bring it . You guys need to be ready

19:10

. This discipleship is an area

19:12

that you're a weekend . That's a gap in

19:14

your journey . Go to the lion

19:16

with thatus right now . Type

19:19

it in your phone the lion with thatus

19:21

and dog on it . Join the community . I

19:24

don't have much more direct that can be , but

19:26

join the community . This is what

19:28

we're doing . We are building

19:30

disciples . We're intentional about

19:32

discipleship . I'm being a disciple . All

19:35

of us were discipling each other . We're

19:38

helping each other grow . We're helping each other be better husbands

19:40

, being better fathers , being better

19:42

business men , making better stewardship

19:44

decisions , being taken care of our bodies better . All

19:46

the stuff we talk about the lion . It's

19:49

about discipleship . So , the lion

19:51

with thatus , start your journey

19:54

today . Go check

19:56

it out . Yeah , we have all our university devotionals

19:58

. We have lots of other resources as well . All that

20:00

stuff those starts . At the lion with

20:02

thatus , you can give us a radio

20:05

view and review . That would be amazing , but

20:07

that really helps for the podcast . Grow and the biggest

20:09

thing , the biggest thing seriously Share

20:12

with others . Share

20:14

the lion within us with others . That's

20:16

how we grow . It's by faithful

20:19

listeners like you taking

20:21

intentional steps . Hey , listen to this old

20:23

boy , maybe it makes

20:26

sense to you . We're just the way I break stuff down

20:28

or way the Holy Spirit reveals stuff to me and it's

20:30

revealed stuff to you . I don't know how it works , I

20:33

just don't be obedient . What Christ called me to

20:35

do . We're going to put it out each and every

20:37

week and hopefully it serves you . It

20:39

serves you well . So thank you guys

20:41

, so much for listening . Absolutely the spiritual

20:43

kick-offs . I'm not even going to lie , they're

20:46

the most nervous I get , but

20:48

I just I

20:50

prayed that I could do a good job of continuing

20:52

just to love on you guys , to

20:55

share the good news of the gospel with others and

20:57

to help you see that you can be the leader God

20:59

intends you to be . So get after

21:01

it . Have a great day , fellas . Thank you so much

21:03

for listening . Again , share it with others

21:05

. Send us a note if you have any questions . We'd

21:08

love to connect with the inside community and

21:10

remember to keep unleashing the lion Within

21:12

. If

21:18

you're a man Just looking for greater spiritual

21:20

guidance into how to become a better leader

21:23

. Finding resources that you can

21:25

trust and then implement can be daunting

21:27

For me personally . I thought

21:29

it was a lost cause and I decided to take the

21:31

action , knowing that I wasn't

21:33

alone . It was because of this wide

21:35

gap that we created our line

21:38

within this community . In the areas that we're

21:40

helping Christian men grow are incredible

21:42

. For instance , we've built ways

21:44

for guys to lean in and grow through fun

21:47

events like our daily spiritual kickoff

21:49

, where you get that much needed boost

21:51

directly from God's word . Our Bible

21:53

studies that always focus on how to discern

21:55

and apply what we learn , and

21:58

even our amazing form , where you can speak

22:00

your mind without fear of getting shut down or

22:02

judged by extreme rules of modern day

22:05

social media . On top of all

22:07

that , we know that many men won't

22:09

help overcoming issues and becoming stronger

22:11

in many different areas . That's why

22:13

we created several mastermind groups where

22:15

their iron truly sharp as iron Our

22:18

community is by having a growth

22:20

mindset , accountability , intentionality

22:23

and transparency . In other

22:25

words , just leave fake you at home and

22:28

come to community just as you are . I

22:30

fully believe what we built . I see

22:33

the impact that's making on men right now , and

22:35

I would love to have you check it out . So

22:37

start your very own 30 day free trial

22:39

today to see how we can help you

22:42

be a better leader . So if

22:44

you're ready to take that first step , head over

22:46

to the lion with themus and get started

22:48

. Your journey begins here

22:50

. Visit the lion with them . That us and

22:52

I'll see you inside the tent .