JesusSmartX

Brian Del Turco
  • 5.0 (15)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Biweekly

The show that goes beyond waiting for heaven. Beyond religion. Jesus is brilliant ... he knows how life works best.

  1. 4d ago

    Hitting the Wall: The Breaking Point Every Christ-Follower Faces with Ken Roberts | Jesus Smart X, Ep. 384

    There's a point where the church, the answers you were given, and your own bootstrapped faith stop being enough. Ken Roberts calls it "the wall," the breaking point every Christ-follower eventually faces, whether it comes through personal tragedy, disappointment in leadership, or questions no one around you will really sit with. Ken walks through the six-stage framework behind that moment, why most churches handle the first three stages well and stumble hard at the fourth, and what it took for him personally to survive his own breaking point: losing his wife at forty-seven, and watching his church unravel soon after. We talk deconstruction versus real depth, micro-church, and what it actually means to finish well. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Enhanced show notes: JesusSmart.com/384 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Hitting the Wall: The Breaking Point Every Christ-Follower Faces with Ken Roberts There's a point in every believer's life where the answers stop working. Ken Roberts calls it "the wall," and in this conversation with Brian, he lays out why it's the breaking point almost every Christ-follower eventually faces, and why the church is so often unprepared to walk with us through it. The De-churching Moment Ken opens by naming what's happening across the West right now: a wave of people quietly stepping back from organized church. "They're not finding the depth, the relevance, the abundance in going to another meeting," he says. It's not one cause, Ken says, but a soul hunger the church often doesn't have language for. Six Stages, One Critical Wall Drawing from the book The Critical Journey, Ken lays out six stages every believer moves through: being introduced to God, baseline discipleship, giving back to a spiritual community, hitting "the wall," a deep inner life with Jesus, and finally a life defined simply by love. Most churches, Ken says, do well with the first three. It's stage four, the wall, where things fall apart. "Our evangelical equations don't seem to work," he says. "Two plus two is supposed to be four, and suddenly it's not." A leadership failure, an unanswered doubt, a trauma nobody knows how to sit with: any of it can trigger the wall. Ken points to two places the church especially struggles here. The first is honest theological doubt, questions like whether Genesis 1 and 2 are meant to be read literally. "That should be the safe place to have that dangerous conversation," Ken says, "but it's not. You either get shut down, or you get the pat answer they already have ready." The second is trauma. For years, Ken says, the church's default response has been prayer, a Bible verse, and a referral to outside counseling. People carrying real pain come back into the same setting and find nobody quite knows what to do with them, because worship stays "rah-rah" every week and there's no room made for lament. Ken's Own Wall Ken shares his own version of this story candidly: losing his wife in a car accident at forty-seven, after forty-something years of following the Lord and pastoring a church. "It just doesn't make sense," he says. The church he'd been pastoring began unraveling shortly after, and within six years of her death, it no longer existed. "That was my wall. That was my critical season." He could have let it end there. What got him through wasn't a program or a fresh set of answers. It was a handful of mature believers willing to enter the pain and the dialogue with him instead of preaching at him, giving him room to work it out rather than handing him stock answers. Ken calls it a big "if": most people who hit the wall never quite make it through. "Anecdotally, it's not very many," he says, "especially not less than half who actually come through it and don't just get stuck doing the religious Christian thing." Where Is Jesus in All of This? Brian pushes Ken on the obvious question: if the organized church struggles this much with stage four, where does that leave Jesus's own promise to build his church? Ken's answer comes in two parts. Individually, he says, Jesus is always right beside us, and the longer you walk with him, the more you sense it's actually Jesus living in you. But Jesus also built the church to be a body, not just a collection of individuals. Ken's own resolution isn't to abandon organized church but to hold both: a home church he's planted in and gives to, alongside a smaller, more relational expression like the Gathering House for the depth that stage four and five require. From the Wilderness to Real Depth Those who make it through the wall, Ken says, move into stage five: a simpler, deeper walk with Jesus, stripped of a lot of the "scaffolding" that gets built up around faith over the years. He compares much of modern Christianity to the U.S. Capitol building under renovation, wrapped in scaffolding and black mesh so thick you'd never recognize it underneath. "We need to take some of that scaffolding down," he says, "so we can return to the purity of what it is." That's also how Ken thinks about deconstruction, a word that makes a lot of believers nervous. He draws a clear line: deconstruction that ends in walking away from the faith is one thing, but questioning the scaffolding built up around the faith is another. "I don't think all deconstruction is wrong," he says. Stage five isn't about needing the church less out of pride, Ken is careful to add, but about needing it differently: less as scaffolding to hold you up, more as an interdependent family you freely belong to. That doesn't mean walking away from church, Ken is careful to say. It means finding what he calls "micro-ecclesia," smaller, deeply relational expressions of church that can sit with people in stage four in a way a Sunday service often can't, alongside a home church rather than instead of one. He and his wife host something twice a month called the Gathering House: no pastor, no platform, just a small group gathered around Scripture, the creeds, and communion. "There's no talking head," Ken says. "It's the work of Christ." Ken also draws a sharp line between what a church builds people into and what it should. "If we're not building people up into Christ, we're doing them a false service," he says. Build people around a vision, a doctrine, a personality instead, and you get codependency. Walk through the wall, and that codependency gets replaced with something healthier: interdependence. Finishing Well The conversation closes on what Ken calls his life's real mission now: finishing well. He breaks it into three marks. First, an open, pliable, faithful heart toward God, the kind C.S. Lewis had in mind when he said God wants "a grown-up mind but a childlike heart." Second, being someone whose life genuinely draws the people closest to you, your kids, your grandkids, your spouse, toward Jesus rather than away from him. Third, staying faithful to whatever assignment you're in for as long as you're in it, rather than checking out once retirement hits. "We all want to hear the Lord say, well done, good and faithful servant," Ken says. "We're all contributing to the Lord's story." Ken Roberts coaches leaders and consults with churches through what he calls the three C's: caution, crisis, and convergence, the defining moments most believers have to navigate to keep moving forward instead of stalling out. His new course, FORM, is a guided, cohort-based journey toward spiritual formation. Find him at kenlroberts.com. Scripture referenced: Genesis 1–2 · Genesis 3:8 · Genesis 1:28 · Ephesians 4:15–16 · John 15 · 1 John 4 · Hebrews 10:25 · 1 Peter 4:17 · Matthew 25:21 · 2 Timothy 4:5

  2. Aug 27

    It's Always Comeback Time: Shift, Pray, Proclaim | Jesus Smart X, Ep. 383

    Something sick or dying in your world? Peter's raising of Tabitha in Acts 9 reveals a three-part kingdom pattern for breakthrough: shift your environment, pray through, and proclaim in faith. It's always comeback time in Christ. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via the Smart Edit letter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/letter. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: It's Always Comeback Time: Shift, Pray, Proclaim Christ is reigning. This is Jesus Smart X with Brian Del Turco. Live the difference. Hello there, friend. I'm recording this outside today, so if you hear a little birdsong in the background — well, that's a good thing. Did you know research now shows that five minutes of birdsong a day is good for you psychologically? Maybe we'll talk about that sometime — about creating soundscapes in our lives that are positive and healthy for our spirit, soul, and body. Today I want to talk with you about shifting your environment for a breakthrough, then praying through, and then proclaiming in faith to activate the extraordinary. Shifting your environment. Praying through. Proclaiming in faith. Let me ask you this: is something sick or dying in your world? Well, it's comeback time. A Kingdom Pattern from Peter — and from Jesus Peter modeled something for us in the book of Acts, and he learned it from Jesus. There's no reason we can't do the same. Maybe it's a relationship, something in the financial space, a career, a business, a ministry project, or some cause you care about. Peter modeled three kingdom dynamics for seeing someone — or something — experience new life. We find them in Acts chapter 9. Tabitha fell sick and died. Luke writes that she was a woman who abounded in deeds of kindness and charity. Something good and beneficial had stopped. And the question was: how would Peter move forward in the face of this? Acts 9 tells us that when Peter arrived, they brought him into the upper room, and all the widows stood beside him weeping, showing him the tunics and garments Dorcas had made while she was still with them. But Peter sent them all out. Now, grieving is real — it's understandable. But this woman had been taken before her time, and Peter knew that if they were going to see the extraordinary, he had to shift the environment away from depression, wailing, and sorrow, and condition it for kingdom possibilities. Peter wasn't this wise on his own. Where did he get the idea? He'd seen Jesus do the very same thing with a little girl in Matthew chapter 9. Jesus arrived after this girl had died. The mourners started to mock him when he said, "She's asleep." He took Peter, James, and John with him into the room and told the crowd to leave. He conditioned the environment. And when they had gone, he entered, took her by the hand, and the girl got up. We, too, can follow this pattern that Jesus modeled and Peter followed: condition the environment. Point One: Condition Your Environment We probably need to stop listening to some things, stop watching some things, stop letting certain people or circumstances shape us. We're meant to live from the inside out. When our internal state is powered up, our internals shape our externals for the positive — instead of our environment crushing in on us and shaping us from the outside in. The Lord may lead us to graciously transform, or if necessary release, some relationships — and to stay open to new ones. We may need to let go of some negative memories and past experiences. There are many ways we condition both our outer environment and our inner one. (Maybe sometime we can talk about how our internals shape our externals.) But that's point one: condition — or recondition — your environment. Position yourself and set the stage for the extraordinary. Point Two: Pray Through to Win the Day We can learn something from the old-school believers and that old-school phrase, "praying through." There are some things cool and casual won't win. Acts 9 tells us that after conditioning the environment, Peter knelt down and prayed. This is where we go to access grace and power. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace — empowerment to help in our time of need. When we pray like that, we pick up the voice signature of God. We tune our inner man and dial into the heart and mind of God. His mind, his ability, is imparted to us. Don't you love the promise in Ephesians 3:20? "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us — to him be the glory." So first we condition our environment, whatever that means in our context and situation. Then we pray through. Not a Formula — A Kingdom Pattern Before we get to the third point, let me be clear: this isn't a formula. I'm not saying follow these steps and it will just happen. What this is, is a kingdom pattern — a template clearly seen in how Jesus and Peter operated. It's a best practice, a working knowledge of the kingdom. Underneath it all, authentic faith is relational. It flows from our vital connection with the living Christ. It's organic, not technical — not a formula. The living voice of Christ to us in the moment creates faith. Paul said in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Even if we have no faith, that's okay — faith can be created. And if our faith is too small, faith can grow larger by hearing the living voice of Christ. Point Three: Turn and Proclaim in Faith So: condition the environment, pray through, and then, third, turn and speak to the situation. This is where you win the day. Acts 9 tells us that Peter turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, arise." She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up, and calling the saints and widows back in, he presented her alive. This is amazing. Jesus defined faith as belief-filled speaking — a stunning principle. In Mark chapter 11, Jesus says, "Have faith in God," and then, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him." It's an eye-opener that Jesus defines the function of faith first as saying. And yet faith-filled speaking is sourced in the womb of prayer, because in the very next verse Jesus says, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." I challenge you to go to Matthew chapter 8, where Jesus identifies the greatest faith he had ever seen. He says, "I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel." If Jesus says that, we should pay attention. Who is this person? It was a Gentile Roman centurion who understood authority and commanding words — the chain of authority. He said, "I too am a man in authority, just as you are, Jesus. I recognize that you're under the Father's authority." He understood the power of commanding words: "Just say the word, and my servant will be healed." So Peter stood up from that place of praying through, turned to face the situation, and spoke. He released his faith — a commanding word of belief — and kingdom possibility followed. It was prayer-sourced, belief-filled proclamation. And it was an environment — internal and external — that he had conditioned for the extraordinary. It's Always Comeback Time So, friend: is something sick or dead in your world? We all have that — something great or small, in varying measures. It's comeback time. It's always comeback time when you're a Christ follower, because you have what one teacher calls "redemptive lift" in you. You have the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It's constantly accessible. There's redemptive lift. You cannot sink. You cannot be defeated — if you stay faithful, if you stay connected. It's always comeback time. So why not use this kingdom template that Jesus used, and Peter used? Now you and I can use it today, because that's what Jesus is looking for. He modeled the kingdom, and he's inviting — even commanding — his followers to operate the same way, to live at the same level. There it is again: condition your environment for the extraordinary. Pray through until you receive. And now rise up, turn to that situation in faith, and proclaim. I appreciate you, friend. Christ is reigning. Go live like it. This has been Jesus Smart X with Brian Del Turco. Until next time. Scripture referenced: Acts 9:36–42 · Matthew 9:23–25 · Hebrews 4:16 · Ephesians 3:20 · Romans 10:17 · Mark 11:22–24 · Matthew 8:5–10

  3. Aug 20

    Building a Gold, Silver, Precious Stones Kind of Day | Jesus Smart 180, Ep. 382

    Today isn't just another day — every day's a building day. From 1 Corinthians 3, Brian Del Turco asks the question every believer needs to hear: are you building with gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw? What survives the fire? In under three minutes, discover how the Word, the Spirit, and prayer turn an ordinary days into material that lasts. Because days build weeks, and weeks build seasons. Christ is the Master Craftsman. You're the apprentice. Time to build something that counts. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Building a Gold, Silver, Precious Stones Kind of Day Jesus Smart 180. Three minutes. One turnaround. Hey, how are you doing? I hope your summer is going well — and if you're listening in the fall, winter, or spring, I hope that season is treating you well too. We think today is just another day. It's not. It's a building day. And one day, fire is going to test everything we build with. What Are You Building With? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that whatever we build on the foundation — Christ himself — will get tested. We can build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. The fire will reveal which one survives. Every day we're building. The question is, what are we building with? Are we building with the Word, with the Spirit's leading, with prayer-borne action? That's gold, silver, and precious stones, and it holds up under fire. Or are we building on impulse, autopilot, whatever's easiest, carnality? That's wood, hay, and straw. It might look fine going up, but fire will show what it's made of. I want to encourage us to journal, to map out, to stay aware and conscious of how we're doing, so we can architect our lives in a way that pleases the Lord. Days Build Weeks, Weeks Build Seasons Here's what I want us to catch today: days build weeks, weeks build seasons. You're not just deciding how today goes. You're laying material into a season of your life. One day your life will be over, and beyond that, we'll give a stewardship accounting of our lives. Now, God is kind. He's restorative, he's redemptive. But we do need to engage with him on this. Here's the good news: we're not building alone. Christ is the Master Craftsman. We are the apprentice. Partner with him. Ask him to help you lay gold, silver, and precious stones today, not just to get through the day. Let's Pray and Declare Father, in the name of your Son, Jesus, I want to build with gold, silver, and precious stones today. Holy Spirit, lead my steps. May your Word shape my choices. Christ, you are the Master Craftsman. I'm building with you, not apart from you, not around you. Let this day hold up under the fire. Let my days build weeks and seasons that count, that bring you glory, and contribute to your story. Amen. That's your 180. Find more at JesusSmart.com.

  4. Aug 10

    Becoming Unoffendable: "I Can Afford That" | Jesus Smart 180, Ep. 381

    Offenses hit us like fiery darts. But what if you could become unoffendable? In this episode, Brian shares a simple approach that’s changing how he’s learning to handle offenses, unpacks what it really means to forgive a debt, and explores why Scripture calls this “the glory” of what it means to be created in the image of God. Learn to say, “I can afford that.” ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Becoming Unoffendable: "I Can Afford That" Jesus Smart 180. Three minutes. One turnaround. Hello there, friends. Welcome to the podcast. I have something here that I've been thinking about, something that surfaced this morning with me in prayer, and that is becoming unoffendable — the process of becoming unoffendable, the freedom that brings, and the attitude that "I can afford that." Let me tell you what I mean. Giving the Offense to God Offenses will come at us as fiery darts. They can be small to medium scale, and they typically come through people, sometimes circumstances, but usually people. Behind them is a dark power trying to create friction in our life: discouragement, wearing us out, distracting us, getting us to veer off mission. We're called to stay on point, on message, on time, on assignment, our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So what do we do with these offenses? Jesus said it's impossible that offenses not come, so we're going to deal with it. But it's an opportunity, and that's the way we need to approach it. It's advantageous. We give it to the Lord. Romans 12:19 says vengeance belongs to him. That's his lane, not ours. I've started praying it from time to time: "Lord, if you want to deal with this, go ahead. If you don't, that's fine with me too, but I'm not carrying it. It's in your hands." What I find is that when he moves on something, he does a far better job than I can, and I stay free, and I stay in my lane. "I Can Afford That" "Forgive me as I forgive those indebted to me" is how Jesus taught us to pray. To forgive means to give — it's in the word. Don't insist that they pay for the offense. Luke 6:38 is a popular verse, but I encourage you to read the verses around it too. We're to forgive, we're to give to others, and we give, and it will be given to us, good measure, pressed down, shaken together. What a gift this is in Christ. We can love because he first loved us. We can be secure in that. And he takes care of the revenge issue as necessary — nobody sets things right like Jesus. I don't have to collect on the indebtedness of others. Say this with me: "I can afford that." Say it again: "I can afford that." What do I mean? We can live in the abundance and grace-empowerment of Christ. When somebody becomes indebted to us through an offense or a sin, we don't have to collect on it, we don't have to worry about it. Instead, we posture ourselves to be blessed by the Lord. He takes us to higher levels. We need to become so taken with Christ and his Kingdom that it eclipses these small, nagging things trying to nip at our heels. It's so much bigger than that. Do you want the glory of God in your life? Proverbs 19:11 says it is the glory of God to overlook a transgression. What does that mean? I encourage you to dig deeper. The New Testament word for glory is doxa... a correct recognition, a correct understanding. The glory of God is a correct perception of his attributes, his nature. The Old Testament word kavod, one of the Hebrew words for glory, means his weightiness, his authority. We want God to show up and throw his weight around as necessary. That's his authority. So taken together, it's the glory of God to overlook a transgression. We maintain and cultivate a clearer perception of God, his nature, his attributes. We don't take his name in vain, we don't misrepresent him, and we learn how to move in his royal authority — carrying his weight in this world. You're going to need his weight to live the life he wants you to live in Christ. Thanks for listening to Jesus Smart 180. Your move. Visit jesussmart.com for show notes and more.

  5. Jul 30

    Praise, Discern, Fight — In That Order | Jesus Smart X, Ep. 380

    In the wilderness, God gave Israel a precise order for breaking camp and moving: Judah first, then Issachar, then Zebulun. Praise, then discernment, then warfare. There are protocols and precedents in the Old Testament that find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. It's a kingdom sequence for how we move in faith today in Christ. Skip a step, and something breaks down. Get the order right, and you take ground. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Enhanced show notes: JesusSmart.com/380 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Praise, Discern, Fight — In That Order Welcome back. Quick heads up before we dive in: this one's shorter than usual, not a Jesus Smart 180, just a tighter full-length episode. Today we're looking at a sequence buried in the wilderness camp of Israel. The Old Testament is full of precedents and protocols that find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the New Covenant, meaning in our lives on this side of the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension. One of those protocols is a kingdom dynamic we could call praise, then discernment, then warfare, in that order. It's a pattern that shows up again and again in Scripture, and it's just as available to us now, in a heightened sense, through Christ and the New Covenant, as it was to the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. This content comes straight from my Smart Edit newsletter. If you want these kinds of insights landing in your inbox before they ever hit the podcast, sign up free at jesussmart.com/smartedit. It's free, and I think you'll like it. Stick around to the end, I'll close us out with a quick prayer. A Kingdom Protocol for Good Success God prescribed, in detail, how the nation of Israel was to encamp around the tabernacle in the wilderness, and in what order the tribes were to journey whenever they broke camp. Three tribes camped north, three east, three south, three west. The three camped to the east were Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and whenever the camp moved, whether journeying or heading into battle, Judah went first, then Issachar, then Zebulun. Judah was uniquely anointed for worship. The name itself means praise, and Judah was marked as the tribe through which kingship and worship would flow. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Issachar excelled in prophetic discernment; 1 Chronicles 12 says they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. Zebulun excelled in battle: skilled, disciplined, primed for war, expert with every weapon, stouthearted men who could keep ranks. Praise first. Discernment second. Warfare third. Reordering Your Next Move That's not just a wilderness protocol. It's a kingdom sequence for how we initiate and move in faith today. Always lead with praise, always lead with focus on King Jesus and seeking his kingdom first. Then follow with prophetic discernment, call it God-tel or intel, the sons of Issachar understanding the times and what you ought to do. Only then are you ready for Zebulun: warfare, practical action, moving out. A good question to ask: what's on the other side of this order for you? What needs resetting right now? Maybe it's a new season from God you desperately need, or showing forth his excellencies in one of three domains: work and finance, relational life, or wellness. What's pending from heaven's point of view for you? You can read more on this at jesussmart.com/380, including some additional thoughts I didn't get to here. Let's pray together for a moment. Father, we thank you for this kingdom protocol, and for the Old Testament precedents that find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the New Covenant, this side of the ascension. Whatever horizons we're looking at, whatever opportunities are before us, whatever challenges we're facing, inspire us to lead with worship and focus on King Jesus and his royal authority. Help us, like the sons of Issachar, to carry prophetic discernment, God-tel from your points of view rising within us. And then, under a spirit of might, help us do warfare and move out in applied, faith-filled action. I pray this over my brothers and sisters in Christ, and over my own life. We want to show up in full-spectrum faith and full agency in your kingdom. We thank you for it, Lord. In your name, amen. So that's the sequence: praise first, discernment second, warfare and action third. Skip a step and something breaks down. Get the order right and you take ground. If this landed for you, get more of it delivered weekly at jesussmart.com/smartedit, that's the Smart Edit newsletter. It's free, and I think it'll be a value add to your walk with Christ. Christ is reigning. Go live like it. This has been Jesus Smart X. Until next time.

  6. Jul 23

    Required Listening: Talk Like the Most Effective Communicator Who Ever Lived with Charles Stone | Jesus Smart X, Ep. 379

    Jesus was the most effective communicator who ever lived. Dr. Charles Stone, a pastor with a background in the neuroscience of leadership, breaks down the brain science behind how he taught, connected, and moved people to change. Connection. Emotion. Memory. Action. This conversation will change how you talk to everyone in your life. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Enhanced show notes: JesusSmart.com/379 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Talk Like the Most Effective Communicator Who Ever Lived Brian Del Turco: Hey there, friend. Welcome to the podcast. This is Brian Del Turco, and this is Jesus Smart X. I'm glad you're here. This is episode 379, and you can find the show notes for this episode at jesussmart.com/379. This is a special required-listening episode: a recording from the past that we're surfacing again, because it's about communication, and communication makes everything work. Jesus was a master communicator, and we have a lot to learn from him. Here's Dr. Charles Stone, an expert on neuroscience and communication. Dr. Charles Stone helps us explore what it might look like if Jesus gave a TED Talk: eight neuroscience principles the master teacher used to persuade, whether in one-on-one conversation, small clusters, or massive crowds. We'll survey all eight briefly, then dig into a few in more depth, including creating affinity, leveraging emotion, and stimulating real life application. Dr. Stone is a pastor in Canada with an executive master's in the neuroscience of leadership, and he's currently working on his PhD. Here's my conversation with Dr. Charles Stone. Meet Dr. Charles Stone Brian Del Turco: I'm really excited about our guest today. He's an expert on neuroscience and leadership as it relates specifically to ministry, though I think there's application here across every life domain. Scripture tells us to love God with all our mind, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Is it too much to say that the mind of Christ in us involves a kind of neuroplasticity, that we can actually grow in the mind of Christ? Dr. Charles Stone: Not at all. The way God designed us to learn is through actual changes in our brain, and those changes reflect our values, our beliefs, and our convictions. Brian Del Turco: Communication makes the world go round. Does this apply beyond the pulpit, to relational communication in family life, friendships, teaching? Dr. Charles Stone: Absolutely. God wired us to communicate in a way that isn't just for someone standing up front on Sunday morning. Our brains are wired to pay attention, to respond, to feel safe or unsafe around others, regardless of the setting. Biblical communication principles apply across the board. Dr. Stone holds degrees from Georgia Tech, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical, plus an executive master's in the Neuroscience of Leadership. He's the author of *If Jesus Gave a TED Talk*, a title he borrows not because Jesus gave neat eighteen-minute talks, but because he masterfully lived out the best ways to communicate and make truth stick. He was God, so we don't have what he has, but we can still learn from how he taught. The Forgetting Curve That Sparked a Book Brian Del Turco: What prompted you to write this book? Dr. Charles Stone: As a pastor spending fifteen to twenty hours a week preparing a message, I had this nagging feeling: what difference is this actually making? None of my seminary professors ever taught the theory behind what makes a message stick. Then I came across research from a German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who invented nonsense words, memorized them, and measured how quickly he forgot them. That gave us the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, and it's since been repeatedly confirmed: people forget more than 95 percent of what they hear in a teaching session within a week's time. That was a wake-up call. Are there tools, principles, that communicators can apply to increase retention? Absolutely. That's why I wrote the book, and why others are studying the neuroscience of learning and communication. Eight Questions, Eight Principles Dr. Stone built his framework around eight questions, one for each principle: where you want to take your audience, how to get them to listen, why they should listen, how to beat out distractions, how to help them feel the message, how to make it stick, how to help them believe they can change, and what you want them to do afterward. Those became eight principles: clarity, attention, affinity, capacity, durability, emotion, mindset, and transfer. For a full breakdown, visit the show notes at jesussmart.com/379. Affinity: Creating Real Connection Dr. Charles Stone: Connection happens on two levels. First, with your material. You've all sat through a class or a sermon where the speaker clearly doesn't know their own content; that requires homework on our part. Second, and bigger, is human connection. Psychologists call it in-group and out-group. When people feel you're in their in-group, they pay attention and follow you. When they feel you're in the out-group, they can subconsciously register you as a threat, and they simply won't listen as well. Sometimes when I'm speaking to a new audience, I'll show a picture of my family, my kids, my dog. It signals, this is a normal guy. It builds trust. And the more you actually know your audience's needs, the more you can tailor what you say to them. I once heard a speaker from the southern U.S. reference a Chick-fil-A item to a room of Canadian pastors, and half the room had no idea what he meant. Small thing, but it's a missed connection. People sense, subconsciously, whether you know them. Brian Del Turco: That's a powerful baseline human instinct: to be seen, heard, known. Emotion: Engaging the Heart Dr. Charles Stone: If we'd been a fly on the wall for Jesus's preaching, we'd have heard passion, present enough that crowds asked, "Who is this who teaches with authority?" Emotion isn't just about the communicator's delivery; it's also how powerfully emotional learning sticks. I remember exactly where I was when the Challenger exploded, and when the towers fell on 9/11. That's the kind of stickiness emotion creates. There's a flip side, though: cognitive dissonance. Push people too far ahead of where they are and you lose them. Stay a step or two ahead, not miles ahead. If most people aren't keeping a daily devotional habit, don't challenge them to an hour a day; challenge them to ten minutes, three days a week, then raise the bar the next week. Well-placed stories matter too. Jesus told parables. A good story pulls a listener inside it; they become an actor in the narrative, engaging mind and heart together. Transfer: Stimulating Life Application Dr. Charles Stone: The goal of teaching isn't to disseminate information; it's for something to change outside the room. That requires prospective memory: remembering to do something in the future. Simple cues help. Some churches hand out small cards with a question from the message; people tape them to a dashboard or refrigerator as a reminder to apply what they heard that week. A Word on Contagious Confidence Dr. Charles Stone: There's something called emotional contagion: people catch your emotions, good or bad. I once watched a fast-food manager berate his cook in front of a line of customers; he'd set a tone, and it spread. Walk into a room defeated or irritated, and people won't lean in. Bring an encouraging spirit and they believe, "I can actually do this." That said, authenticity still matters; naming a real struggle briefly, without becoming a weekly downer, builds empathy rather than distance. This ties to mentalizing, our built-in ability to intuit the feelings and intentions of others: part spiritual sensitivity, part the way God wired our brains to read facial cues. We can't compartmentalize the spiritual from the physical; it's one integrated human experience. Closing Prayer Dr. Charles Stone: Father, thank you for technology that lets us share these conversations. Thank you for designing our brains and giving us the ability to form words and meaning. Thank you for the beauty of language, even though we so often misuse it. Lord, I pray listeners would take even one nugget from this conversation, and that your Holy Spirit would embed it deep. You've shown us your way of communicating through the Gospels, through how Jesus taught and told stories. May we learn from him as the teacher of all teachers, and may we steward this gift well. In your name, amen. For more on this conversation and the full eight principles from If Jesus Gave a TED Talk, visit jesussmart.com/379.

  7. Jul 17

    Spirit-Filled Execution: Aligning Action with Christ's Energy | Jesus Smart 180, Ep. 378

    Whatever's in front of you right now — a new venture, a difficult conversation, a career decision, a family challenge — lay this Kingdom template over it. It starts with creative prayer: partnering with Christ's creative intent. It moves to diligent planning: honoring what is revealed by stewarding it with intentionality. And it executes in the energy of the Holy Spirit, not your own strength or willpower. When you follow this pattern, you tap into something far greater than your own effort. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Spirit-Filled Execution: Aligning Action with Christ's Energy Hey, welcome back. I'm Brian Del Turco. This is Jesus Smart 180, our short-form version of the Jesus Smart X podcast. There's a way that things work in any kingdom — and this is supremely true in the Kingdom of God. Today I have a three-part template you can lay over anything and everything to meet any challenge or exploit any opportunity. Creative prayer. Strategic planning. Spirit-filled execution. Start Here: Creative Prayer It starts here. Always. Prayer isn't just asking God for things. It's partnering with the Father's creative intent for your life. When you pray creatively, you're tuning into what God is already doing — listening for his thoughts, his designs, his dreams for you, and how it all fits into his larger story. James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. Creative prayer positions you to receive what's already flowing from his heart. It's not about convincing God of your agenda. It's about discerning his. Move to Strategic Planning Once you've prayed and received direction, get intentional. Map it out. What are the steps he's leading you to take? What resources do you need? What's the timeline? Solomon said it plainly: "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage." (Proverbs 21:5, NASB) This isn't about trusting your planning more than God. It's about honoring what he's entrusted to you. Psalm 127 reminds us that unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. But notice. The builders are still working. They're just making sure the Lord is the architect. Planning sanctified by prayer becomes a form of worship. Execute in the Spirit's Power Now comes the doing. And here's where most of us stumble ... we try to execute in our own strength what God initiated by his Spirit. Paul's question in Galatians 3:3 cuts right to it. "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The same Spirit who gave you the vision wants to fuel the execution. Stay connected. Pray through each phase. Depend on the Spirit's energy, not just your human willpower. Spirit-filled execution isn't frantic or anxious. There's a grace to it. Yes, you're working hard. But you're resting in the reality that God is working with you and through you. The Zeal of the Lord When you follow this pattern — creative prayer, strategic planning, Spirit-filled execution — you tap into something far greater than your own effort. Isaiah calls it the zeal of the Lord. His fierce, burning commitment to see good accomplished on the earth, flowing through your yielded life. Lay this template over anything. A new venture. A difficult conversation. Your career. Your family. Become skilled in it. Show notes for this episode are at JesusSmart.com/378. If this sharpened something in you — pass it on. I'm Brian Del Turco. Pray creatively. Plan strategically. Execute in the Spirit.

  8. Jul 2

    Learning to Love America the Beautiful | Jesus Smart X, Ep. 377

    The most important rights you have do not come from a government — it came from your Creator. As America marks 250 years, this episode asks what it means to love your country through a Kingdom lens. Revisiting a conversation on faith and the ideals that built a nation, we explore why your new nature in Christ is big enough to hold both a Kingdom-first faith and a real love for the nation He's placed you in. ---------- See the full episode transcript below. 👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement. Be sure to follow the podcast. Each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible. Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Sign up at JesusSmart.com/smartedit. ---------- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Learning to Love America the Beautiful Rights That Come From Somewhere Higher Every right you have didn't come from a government. It came from your Creator. That's the founding idea behind America, and it's the lens we're using today as the nation marks 250 years of independence. This isn't just about celebrating a date on the calendar. It's about asking a deeper question: what does it look like to love your country through a Kingdom lens? This year, July 4th carries extra weight. Two hundred fifty years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a document signed by over fifty men who paid real prices for putting their names on it. That document sparked a war. It also sparked something else: a nation built not on ethnicity or monarchy, but on ideals. A Nation Built on Ideas America is unique in world history because it isn't founded on the legacy of a bloodline or a crown. It's founded on ideas, chief among them, ordered liberty. Katharine Lee Bates captured that idea in her hymn "America the Beautiful" when she wrote "confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law." Liberty and self-control, held together. That's ordered liberty. It's not an accident that a poet writing from the top of Pikes Peak in 1893 landed on the same idea the founders had built into the Constitution over a century earlier. The framers drew from the best of the Greco-Roman world, the Enlightenment, and a strong dose of Judeo-Christian conviction. That blend mattered. Thomas Jefferson believed the French Revolution was simply an extension of the American one. John Adams disagreed, and Adams was right. The French Revolution had liberty, fraternity, and equality as its slogan, but it lacked the spiritual roots the American Revolution had. It descended into tyranny under Napoleon. America's revolution, by contrast, was preceded by the First Great Awakening, a wave of Christian revival up and down the Eastern seaboard in the 1730s and 1740s that shaped the spiritual and moral imagination of the generation that would go on to found a nation. Rights From the Creator, Not the State The Declaration of Independence makes a claim that's easy to read past: these rights are endowed by the Creator, not granted by government. That distinction matters enormously. If government grants rights, government can revoke them. But if rights come from God, no human institution has the authority to take them away. That's why the founders built a government of enumerated, limited powers. Three branches. Checks and balances. A Constitution crafted with the understanding that power corrupts, and that men need moral chains on their own appetites, in the words of Irish statesman Edmund Burke. This is also why the Declaration ends the way it does, appealing to "the Supreme Judge of the world" and pledging "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor." These weren't hollow words. Many signers lost property, homes, and safety for putting their names on that document. Freedom, once secured, has rarely been won back once lost. That's exactly why every generation has to understand its cost. Two Loves, Not One Here's the tension many Christians feel and rarely resolve: how do you hold a Kingdom-first faith and still love your country? The answer isn't to choose one. Your spirit, your new nature in Christ, is big enough to hold both: the priority of God's Kingdom first, and a real, God-given love to steward and preserve the nation He's placed you in. That's not compromise. That's stewardship. America's story includes real failures: slavery, Jim Crow, the long road to full civil rights and voting rights for women. The nation has moved, imperfectly but really, toward its own stated ideals. That's part of what makes it an experiment rather than a finished product, living up to ideals that were declared before they were fully realized. What America Still Needs There's a growing sense today that America is due for, and desperately needs, a third great spiritual awakening. The first shaped the moral and spiritual foundation for the Revolution itself. The second, in the 1830s and 40s, sparked reform movements that pushed toward abolition and human dignity, with figures like Charles Finney at the center of it. A third awakening wouldn't just be personal conversion. Historically, these movements have also reshaped culture and society for the better. As we celebrate 250 years, it's a moment to keep expressing our full American DNA and destiny. Not simply looking backward at what the founders built, but continuing to live out the ideals they set in motion, under the ultimate authority of Christ as King. A Closing Prayer Freedom from addiction. Freedom from sin. Freedom from every tyranny sin generates in our lives and communities. Ordered liberty is not just a political concept. It has a spiritual parallel in the Christian life. As you mark this Independence Day, whatever nation you call home, there's an invitation to pray for renewal: spiritual awakening, a return to a Christ-centered worldview, and a fresh recognition that every nation has a story to fulfill under God's sovereign hand. We look forward to the ultimate fulfillment of every nation's story in the new heavens and new earth. Until then, we're called to live as a city on a hill, in the light of what's coming.

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The show that goes beyond waiting for heaven. Beyond religion. Jesus is brilliant ... he knows how life works best.

Information

  • Creator
    Brian Del Turco
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    386
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2020 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    JesusSmartX