How can Christian men honor God with their physical well-being? This episode promises to answer that by unpacking the biblical perspective of health, discipline, and leadership. Inspired by 1 Corinthians 10:31, we discuss the concept of treating our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. It's not about adhering to societal standards but about stewardship, making conscious choices about diet, exercise, and rest as acts of worship. We'll touch on the importance of resisting temptations and prioritizing God's kingdom, offering practical insights on how to live out these principles daily.
As men, we navigate different seasons, seeking guidance to conquer obstacles while remaining steadfast. Discipleship Masterminds is the environment where you not only receive invaluable insights to overcome challenges but also gain profound guidance on the path to becoming the leader God uniquely designed you to be.
How can Christian men honor God with their physical well-being? This episode promises to answer that by unpacking the biblical perspective of health, discipline, and leadership. Inspired by 1 Corinthians 10:31, we discuss the concept of treating our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. It's not about adhering to societal standards but about stewardship, making conscious choices about diet, exercise, and rest as acts of worship. We'll touch on the importance of resisting temptations and prioritizing God's kingdom, offering practical insights on how to live out these principles daily.
As men, we navigate different seasons, seeking guidance to conquer obstacles while remaining steadfast. Discipleship Masterminds is the environment where you not only receive invaluable insights to overcome challenges but also gain profound guidance on the path to becoming the leader God uniquely designed you to be.
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right guys, spiritual kickoff time, so let's get right into it this week. I know you need a boost getting your week started, so we are here to help. So we're in the book of 1 Corinthians, 10, verse 31.
Chris Grainger:
This one this week can be super simple. All right, it says so. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. All right, guys. So if you can tell this week, when we talk about health, digging into our health, how we can honor him, how we can glorify him with our bodies, this is a pillar, such a big part of the line within us Mind and body, we have to take care of those. We have to build those up each and every day, right? So we need to know, not just because we want to look good in the bathing suit, come on now, but we need to do it because we want to honor and glorify God. So let's get right into the scriptures.
Chris Grainger:
The first thing we need to know is where is the book of 1 Corinthians? Okay, that's a very important question. We need to know that this is New Testament written by Paul. If you go past Acts, you go past Romans, you'll get to 1 Corinthians. If you get to 2 Corinthians, guess what? You went too far back up a little bit, okay. So now this is all about taking care of're going to see with Apostle Paul. He tells us right here we have to do this with whatever we drink, whatever we eat, whatever we do. So this speaks right here, directly to the heart of how we, as Christian men, should approach every aspect of our life and think about. This is such a big, important part of how we take care of our bodies, because their bodies are the temples of the holy spirit. You're gonna hear me talk about this this week because that was in first corinthians 6 19, but it's our responsibility to honor god with him. So now we need to start thinking about how can we embrace that biblical perspective on health, because I know it ain't always fun. Let let's just be real. It's not always fun having to take care of bodies. Particularly with more birthday candles you have on your birthday cakes, it gets harder and harder and harder.
Chris Grainger:
From a biblical worldview, taking care of our bodies. It's not just about physical fitness. No, it's about surrendering everything, all the lusts, all the desires, surrendering that stuff down and making choices that honor and please God. Okay, because it should not be vanity or socially driven right. No, it should not be driven by that. If you're trying to lose weight or to trim up so that you can look good on social media, you're chasing the wrong things.
Chris Grainger:
Our duty is to steward what he has given us well. Matthew 6, 25,. Jesus tells us don't worry about our lives. We're going to eat or drink about our bodies. He's teaching us right here and encouraging us to trust God's provision and focus on seeking his kingdom first.
Chris Grainger:
That's so important to remember as we go into this topic this week, because it's reminding us that our worth is not determined by the things of this world, by these external appearances. No, no, no, no, no. You got a couple of things working against you, boys. You got time and gravity. Let's just be real. Old Pastor Jobi talks about. You know, if you got a little chain, you can nip it and tuck it and do all these different types of things to make it look better for a little while, but you still have gravity. I don't care what's going on. You know Dolly Parton, she's still got gravity working against her. That's just part of life, right, and that's OK. So we need to understand that having that biblical perspective is so important.
Chris Grainger:
And then, once you understand that, the second part getting into this verse that we need to think about is discipline. Discipline Because that maintains such a big role in how you're going to take care of your body, because the Bible frequently talks about self-control right and discipline. I mean Proverbs 25, 28 talks about like a city whose walls are broken down through a person who lacks self-control. We got to have discipline because without discipline, our lives can become chaotic and disordered, just like that wall, like Jericho. When the wall I just talked to this last night with our kids at church. When the walls fell down, guess what it was on? Right, it was complete chaos, except for rehab, but anyway, it's complete chaos when it comes to our health.
Chris Grainger:
This one right here, I mean he's making conscious choices. Conscious choices about what we eat, how we work out, the types of fitness we do and also how we care for our bodies, what we put our bodies through. Are we resting the bodies? Are we resting the bodies? Are we letting the bodies get some sleep that it deserves. Are we just jacking our bodies up with so much caffeine just to keep us going? And when they crash, they crash, and we're constantly spiking our heart rates.
Chris Grainger:
Because this discipline involves resisting the temptation to indulge right, and those unhealthy sometimes even healthy habits, like if all you do all day long is work out. That's unhealthy too. You have to take the time to slow down. You need to make the intentional choice to nourish your body with wholesome items, you know. Get rid of the processed food for one and start getting some regular physical activity in, because this is a disciplined approach right here.
Chris Grainger:
And if we were disciplined in our health, we're going to see it differently, versus just a bunch of rules. No one likes a bunch of rules, and if we try to set a bunch of rules out there, guess what? We're going to look for any excuse we can to break them. That's just part of it. Now, if we start making these, if we start putting this discipline in our place and setting these boundaries and these guidelines up, we're going to figure out how to make these decisions. Well, make them using the Bible as your guideline.
Chris Grainger:
Okay, use the Bible, because right here in the beginning of James it talks about. He encourages us to seek God for wisdom. He's going to give it generously. So if we turn to Scripture and prayer, we can find direction for making those healthy choices that align with His will, for instance, in a world that really is all about glorifying extreme diets and all these unrealistic body standards. Let's just face it, it's absolutely ridiculous what's out there right now so far as what's healthy Absolutely ridiculous.
Chris Grainger:
But Scripture says physical training is of some value. But godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. So what's this telling us? You better prioritize that spiritual health. You know. It's just not saying throw the physical well-being to the side, don't think about it. No, that's not what it says. But you're supposed to prioritize that spiritual health and then, at the same time, you'd be doing what he's called you to do to take care of that physical body. It's so important, it's something we can't just gloss over.
Chris Grainger:
And then you got to start thinking about your motivators and social pressures that are out there, because this stuff can be overwhelming, particularly for you guys out there who have daughters. I'm telling you, I got three of them. Sometimes I have to start paying attention to, because body image and dieting that can be overwhelming, especially to young women, and dieting that could be overwhelming, especially to young women Okay, but as Christians we know we're supposed to define our bodies by what Our identity rather, our identity is only found in Christ, in Him alone, than any standards. I mean, it tells us in Psalm 139 that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. I tell my daughters this often and my son I have to tell them this often.
Chris Grainger:
But we've got to have these truths to combat that negative junk that gets thrown at us all the time. And we need to appreciate. You know what. God created us this way? For a reason. So, whatever you think, you know God didn't give me this. Why can't God make me look better in a swimsuit? Why can't God make me have bigger biceps? Whatever, it is right. Look, you need to recognize. God created you the way that he wanted. Now you have to do the work. You've got to do the work, to put in and take care of it. But those social pressures, I'm telling you it can ruin so many of us. So if we focus on God's truth and we surrender our desires for things that do not honor him. So get all that stuff out of your life.
Chris Grainger:
Ok, you can start finding a healthy, balanced approach to take care of this temple. This is this is not just what you eat, fellas, ok, how you exercise, but also how you rest and recover, and this is such a big area that I think so many guys they fly by Maybe you guys out there listening to this. You're pounding it in the gym, you're crushing it there. You're even eating good right, you're taking care of your, you're eating the chicken breast, you're eating the broccoli low on the carbs, the high quality protein, all that stuff, and you're running on about four hours of sleep because you don't need that much sleep. Did you know that the average person back before the light bulb was invented, this is about 11 hours of sleep is what we averaged.
Chris Grainger:
That's working off God's rhythm. What we've done. We've replaced God's rhythm with man's rhythm. We have lights. We can get up whenever we want. We can work whenever we want. We don't have to go to bed because we have entertainment we created ourselves. We sit and we watch these little rectangles of other people doing stuff and we feel entertained by it.
Chris Grainger:
It's like no, no, no, no. We need to recognize If we don't take care and rest these bodies, these temples, we will run into issues. This is probably one of the biggest struggle areas of my life, because I go, go, go. I'm always thinking about stuff, doing stuff and trying to do the next thing, and it's hard to sit still. But you have to sit still and be still and rest so that you can be ready to do what he's called you to do, because taking care of your body is a vital, vital part of living out your faith. You've got to make the decisions that honor and glorify God. You have to start practicing that discipline. You need to start thinking from a biblical worldview, not just your worldview on everything like health, and then, if you do all that, guess what? You'll start stewarding that body of will. You just will. That stewardship will improve because everything you do, everything, is about honor and glorifying God. I want you to think about this is the question of the week.
Chris Grainger:
This week, guys, is how do you find joy in fitness? Now, it may be different for each and every one of you. Some of you guys may really like swimming, okay. Some of you guys may like biking. Some of you guys may like hiking or rucking or running or lifting weights or HIIT exercises or sports Maybe some basketball guys out there or soccer, whatever it may be. Okay, find joy in it, because if you're just doing the stuff, just to do it, I'm telling you, man, find something else.
Chris Grainger:
There's so many other different ways that you can take care of these temples. Find something that works for you. For me, I love strength training, I love hiking with a ruck on and I love running and my exercise bike. Those are things that I just enjoy, right, pretty much every day I'm on that bike. I try to do 15 to 18 miles on that exercise bike and lifting weights If you get two or three of those in a week, it's a good week. Running If I get two or three runs in a week, it's a good week. You know what? All that stuff is hard, it's easy, but find joy in it. Find joy in it and do all you can to honor and glorify God, and then that peace that passes all understanding fellas, if you're doing that with your body, I'm telling you you'll have that peace, because God's going to just, he's just going to smile on you because you're taking care of that temple Remember you're made in his image, take care of it.
Chris Grainger:
And if you're listening to this, you're like man, what in the world are they talking about? Listen to God, like how are you supposed to hear God? Well, you hear God because you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us as believers and we fully believe this. And you're like okay, tell me more. Okay, well, if you're listening to the Lion Within Us, you got this far in. I'm going to share it with you.
Chris Grainger:
I want to share some good news you may not have ever heard before. Maybe you don't fully understand, and it starts with understanding. You are made in the image of God. You're made in the image of God. I know it's hard to put our heads around, but God formed when he made man. He formed Adam with His hands and then breathed the breath of life, called the Ruah of life, into Adam's nostrils. And all of a sudden, adam was face-to-face with his Creator and it was perfect. And we are made in the image of God because we're direct descendants of Adam. So we know that we're made in his image. Okay, so we have that.
Chris Grainger:
Except there's this one problem this little thing called sin. And sin entered the world when they ate the forbidden fruit. Sin entered the world. They were kicked out of the garden and ever since then it's just been a downhill trajectory. That's okay.
Chris Grainger:
We have redemption, we know what we need to do. We have this sin that entered the world and the sin is anything that separates us from God. So don't compare your sin to like the sin of somebody on death row Terrible, terrible way of mindset, because at the end of somebody on death row Terrible, terrible way of mindset, because at the end of the day, a sin's a sin and they all make us fall short of the glory of God and each and every one of us is a sinner, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It says that in Scripture. So you recognize that we're a sinner and also please hear me out there Even some of you Christians we're not.
Chris Grainger:
Struggles. I got to struggle. You got a sin issue. You got a sin issue. Let's call it for what it is. You have a sin issue. Whatever that sin is, we need to address that directly. So we have this gap. It's called sin. It separates a holy and righteous God from us.
Chris Grainger:
What are we going to do? Can you pay for it with money and credit cards? Nope, can you read your Bible to get there? Nope. Can you pray to get there and spend time in small group and go to church to get there? Nope. Can you help little old ladies cross the street Nope. Because all those things are works and works-based righteousness is not found in scripture. You can't work your way into a right standing with God.
Chris Grainger:
Well, if I'm just good, I should be good to go. I'll get into heaven. Well, define good. What's good enough? When have I checked that box? Have I been good enough for the last couple of days? Maybe? What's the standard? What do you mean? What's the standard? No, what's the standard you're comparing yourself to? The answer is you're comparing yourself to a holy and righteous God.
Chris Grainger:
We compare ourselves to God. We all fall short. I don't care who you are. You fall short. So we don't recognize we fall short. There's nothing we can do to pay for it. What do we do? Well, we need a Savior. We don't need a coach. We need a Savior to come in and save us from this penalty of sin, which is death and separation from God forever. So how do we do that? God did it.
Chris Grainger:
Jesus came on a rescue mission for us, was born of a virgin, fulfilled all the prophecies did the teachings, did the miracles, loved us, showed us that a God be loved. Only he could, because he loves us so much. Then he willfully check this out, willfully, gave himself up to be crucified on a cross, pierced through the hands, pierced through the feet, pierced in the side, dead, died On the cross. His perfect blood ran for you, for me, for me, for the entire world. They took him down off that tomb Because right there he was the payment for sin. They took him down off that tomb, they laid him off the cross, they laid him in an empty tomb.
Chris Grainger:
And the reason we're not wearing black and mourning the loss of Jesus every day and every year, particularly at Easter, is because death cannot hold him. He overcame death, he rose. So we don't worship some dead guy, we worship a living Savior. So he rose, he showed himself to the apostles. He showed himself to lots of different people as well, did some more teaching, had a little barbecue on the beach, guys. He did some incredible stuff and then he ascended to heaven.
Chris Grainger:
It's right now at the right hand of the Father. No one gets to heaven except through him. He is the way, the truth and the life. Fellas. There is no other name under heaven that has been given to us by which we must be saved. Jesus is it. And it's so cool to know that and to know him as your Savior. So know all this stuff.
Chris Grainger:
Okay, we're made in the image of God, although we've got the sin issue. But Jesus is the Savior. He died for me. He's the payment that satisfies. What do I have to do? Well, you've got to confess your life to him. You've got to just give it to him.
Chris Grainger:
Lord, I can't do this my way. My way is not working. I need something better. I need something more, because the things of this world that I think are going to fully and finally satisfy me have not done so, no matter how often I chase them. No-transcript, those things aren't inherently bad. When you start finding your identity in that and looking for contentment and joy out of those things, you're going to constantly be disappointed.
Chris Grainger:
So we need to surrender our lives to Him and confess Him as Lord. This is Lord over everything, not just Lord over certain areas, every area of our life, including our finances. We have to confess to him and once we take that step of obedience, okay, at that point the holy spirit's gonna come, it's gonna dwell, you have a new heart, the scale's gonna be off, you'll be able to see the world for what's going on. You'll be out there in the battle with us, having on your your armor of god doing the battle, doing the work. He's your armor of God doing the battle, doing the work he's called you to do, with the Holy Spirit seeking, convicting, guiding and directing you all the way. But here's the thing you have to surrender to Him. You have to surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to take the first step. You take the first step. He'll be there with you all the steps, but you have to take the first step. You take the first step. He'll be there with you all the steps, but you have to take the first step because you need to deny yourself and choose to follow him.
Chris Grainger:
So for our listeners out there right now that are listening, that recognize I've never truly surrendered my life to the Lordship of Christ, maybe today's the day. This is why we do this. We share the gospel every week on SKL, because you never know when the days could be the day. I want to pray for you Now. I want to just invite you in to the family. So, father, thank you for how much you love us, thank you for how good you are to us, thank you for sending Jesus just to be that payment that satisfies, that fulfills the penalty for our sins.
Chris Grainger:
I pray for that one listener right now who's having a tough time. They don't know which way to turn. They don't want things. Their way just ain't working. I pray you put your head's protection around them. Give them just encouragement, give them hope. I pray that they know that you hear their prayer. I pray that they know now they are a son or a daughter of the king. I pray you just put people on their path. That's going to encourage them, speak life into them, that's going to be able to uplift and support them as they grow into their newfound journey of Christian believers. So we love you, lord, we praise you. We just give you all the honor and glory in Christ's name, amen.
Chris Grainger:
So, fellas, ladies too, if you're listening and you're just running your life through the Lordship of Christ, I want to hear from you. Chris at thelionwithinus that's, chris at thelionwithinus, send me an email because I've got a bunch of free resources I want to send you. I want to give you a Bible study I want to send you some 10 scriptures to fight like a lion. I want to get you some other areas, some of our devotionals, get you prayed up on that type of things. Also want to find out how we can help you plug into a local church in your community. We have lots of resources all over the United States. We want to be able to help you any way we can there and just want to just give you a virtual fist bump and a hug and just pray over you and just encourage you and just try to help you get started on the right foot of your journey of now being a disciple A disciple because that's what you've been called to do. Getting saved is the first part. The rest is a lifelong journey of being a disciple of Christ.
Chris Grainger:
All right, so have a great day, get after it. Look, on Wednesday. I'm telling you guys this is going to be a good one on Wednesday. I had a lot of fun with this guest High, high energy, lots of practical tips, particularly around taking some steps, around not being a diet but taking care of our bodies in a way to honor and glorify God. So hopefully you guys are going to enjoy that one Again.
Chris Grainger:
Thelionwithinus, that's thelionwithinus. That's thelionwithinus, how you get all our resources, the devotions I just mentioned a few minutes ago, as well as join our community. Join our community, guys. I'm just going to be straight up with you. We need some guys to join our community, and I'd also just ask for you guys to consider supporting us on a monthly basis. Whatever amount you can kind of afford will help us tremendously. Just continue to build the things and do the things that we feel like God's calling us to do. If you're enjoying the Lion Within us show and you just want to be part of the show, just hey, every week I enjoy listening Monday, wednesday, friday I know these guys just give me some good content. Hey, be a monthly supporter. That'd be huge. I'm telling you. It takes a lot like this, particularly what we feel like God's calling us to do, and your support, no matter how small or how large, could help us tremendously. So go to thelionwithinus, check out the area of support right there. That would be tremendous. All right, guys, have a great, great day, get after it, come back on Wednesday, look forward to hanging out with you. You know what's coming. Keep unleashing the lion with that.
Chris Grainger:
If you're a man who's looking for greater spiritual guidance into how to become a better leader. Finding resources that you can trust and then implement can be daunting. For me personally, I thought it was a lost cause and I decided to take the action, knowing that I wasn't alone. It was because of this wide gap that we created our line within this community, and the areas that we were helping Christian men grow are incredible. For instance, we built ways for guys to lean in and grow through fun events like our daily spiritual kickoff, where you get that much needed boost directly from God's word, our Bible studies that always focus on how to discern and apply what we learn, and even our amazing form, where you can speak your mind without fear of getting shut down or judged by the extreme rules of modern day social media. On top of all that, we know that many men want help overcoming issues and becoming stronger in many different areas. That's why we created several mastermind groups where the iron truly sharpens the iron.
Chris Grainger:
Our community is about having a growth mindset, accountability, intentionality and transparency. In other words, just leave fake you at home and come to community just as you are. I fully believe what we feel. I see the impact it's making on men right now, and I would love to have you check it out. So start your very own 30-day free trial today to see how we can help you be a better leader. So if you're ready to take that first step, head over to thelinewithinus and get started. Your journey begins here. Visit thelinewithinus and I'll see you inside the den.
