WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000
Becoming a Kingdom of God revolutionary, a Jesus disciple, is about inner heart transformation.

2
00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000
If we don't transform our hearts, we're going to go nowhere in our faith.

3
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.000
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, but it's a heart transformation.

4
00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:31.000
It's about our heart, and in our heart there's this longing, this longing for intimacy with God.

5
00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:41.000
And I've found through the years that there's a really simple way to keep our heart growing and transformed in Christ,

6
00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:52.000
wherein we're developing an intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit working in our heart in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

7
00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.000
And I call it PB&J for prayer, Bible, and journal.

8
00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:03.000
Now you think of PB&J as peanut butter and jelly, and that's only to help you remember what the point is.

9
00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000
And so it's P for prayer, Bible, and journal.

10
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:14.000
And there's something about the combination of prayer, Bible, and journal that really does help us grow.

11
00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:21.000
And so I referenced this one time earlier, and that is this aspect, you guys, of reading one chapter a day.

12
00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.000
If you're taking one chapter as you're growing in Christ, I think it should be with the Gospel of John.

13
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:33.000
So in the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

14
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000
The first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called the Synoptic Gospels.

15
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.000
And then the fourth gospel is the Gospel of John.

16
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.000
And the reason I'm going to encourage you to be reading from the Gospel of John,

17
00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:53.000
if all of this is new to you, starting with the Gospel of John, is because this is called the Gospel of Belief.

18
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000
And as a new believer, as we're growing to be the revolutionary Christian that God has called us to be,

19
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:09.000
our faith, our ability to believe God and rest in the promises of God is built around belief.

20
00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:22.000
And so what makes John so unique is he gives us these seven signs of the kingdom of God, seven signs of his deity.

21
00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:28.000
But you see belief again and again. Belief is repeated all through the fourth gospel.

22
00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:36.000
Because John is writing to new Jesus followers about their faith in Christ.

23
00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000
So it's a very what we call evangelistic gospel, the Gospel of John.

24
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000
So I would say start with the Gospel of John.

25
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:52.000
And then the way PB&J works, and I've been doing this now for, I don't know, over 40 years,

26
00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:00.000
is to take time, I think in the morning for me, it could be in the evening for you, it doesn't really matter what time of day,

27
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:10.000
but take time to get alone with God, no distractions, no, well you could have music playing in the background,

28
00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:16.000
but no TV set, no interruptions, try to find a quiet place.

29
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:24.000
A lot of folks in our church love to go to coffee shops, but go to a coffee shop and get alone with the Lord.

30
00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:28.000
But take your Bible, and I'd say start with the Gospel of John.

31
00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000
But first is prayer.

32
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:39.000
So when I open my Bible, when I'm going to have the PB&J time, I open it and I start with prayer.

33
00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.000
And my prayer is, Lord, speak to me.

34
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.000
Lord, open up my heart.

35
00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:53.000
Show me what I need to see from the scriptures today to draw me more closely to you.

36
00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:00.000
Show me those things in my life that need to change, that are a hindrance in my relationship with God.

37
00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.000
And so very simple prayer like that is where it begins.

38
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.000
But then you start to read the Word.

39
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:16.000
And you know, in John, as you're reading a chapter, God's going to speak to you.

40
00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:22.000
And we call the reading of the Word to be the logos.

41
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000
And then when the Word reads you, we call that rhema.

42
00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:34.000
And there's the spoken word, logos, that's the Greek word here.

43
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.000
But then there's the speaking word of God, which is rhema, the Greek word for speaking.

44
00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:45.000
And so this is what you're doing is you're reading the spoken word, the logos.

45
00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:56.000
But then as you're reading, God begins to speak to your heart about something that he wants to accentuate in your heart and in your life.

46
00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:00.000
And that's why we do this, because God's speaking to us from his Word.

47
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.400
word, through his Logos word, he's speaking a rhema word to us.

48
00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:10.720
So first is prayer, asking God to show up.

49
00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:16.160
Second is Bible, letting God speak to us.

50
00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:18.120
But then thirdly, and this is the part

51
00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:21.320
that I think is missing a lot, and that's a journal.

52
00:05:21.520 --> 00:05:24.280
And I've got a spiral bound.

53
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.640
This isn't spiral bound, but it's just a regular composition notebook.

54
00:05:28.640 --> 00:05:31.520
It's a great place to start.

55
00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:38.920
I have reams and reams of boxes full of my journals from all the years

56
00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:39.960
of spending time with the Lord.

57
00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:45.280
I could look back, I could open up a particular box, just randomly stick my

58
00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.840
hand and pull out one of my journals, and within a few pages, I would remember

59
00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:54.720
back to my time in Japan or remember back to my time at University of Georgia,

60
00:05:54.880 --> 00:05:57.280
or I could remember back about, you know,

61
00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:03.800
graduate school in California, whatever, because I took so many notes in my heart

62
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.480
and kept them in my journal.

63
00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:09.080
So what's interesting about a journal

64
00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:16.560
is that in pedagogy studies, they found that there's 80 percent more

65
00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:20.840
retention in your life if you write down what you're hearing.

66
00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:22.120
You write down what you're learning.

67
00:06:22.320 --> 00:06:24.080
You see this in the NFL.

68
00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:25.800
You see this in college football.

69
00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.440
They call it film, going to film.

70
00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:30.840
They'll go to film.

71
00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:34.840
And at film, the guys all have like a notebook like this,

72
00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.040
especially like the quarterback and stuff, and he's taking notes on what he needs

73
00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:43.600
to know to remember for the upcoming game.

74
00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:51.000
So even in that arena, they found that mental memory and muscle memory go together.

75
00:06:51.200 --> 00:06:55.880
And so same in the Christian life that is we're reading the word.

76
00:06:56.080 --> 00:06:58.280
God's going to speak to us.

77
00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.960
We're going to forget that five minutes

78
00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:04.120
after we leave if we don't write something down.

79
00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:06.840
So what I think is key in a journal is

80
00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.000
that we write it down, put a date on it so we can remember.

81
00:07:10.200 --> 00:07:11.280
Let me give you three things.

82
00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:15.120
Three things happen when you keep a journal.

83
00:07:15.320 --> 00:07:17.080
The first is focus.

84
00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:21.160
It gives you focus as you read God's word.

85
00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:23.760
Secondly, memory.

86
00:07:23.960 --> 00:07:26.120
You start remembering what you're reading.

87
00:07:26.320 --> 00:07:28.520
And then thirdly, application.

88
00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.560
So when I write in my journal,

89
00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:34.680
I first write the date up at the top.

90
00:07:34.880 --> 00:07:39.440
And then as I'm reading God's word and God speaks to me, I usually write down

91
00:07:39.640 --> 00:07:41.840
the verse and as I write the whole verse out.

92
00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:45.640
OK, and then I write under what God's saying to me.

93
00:07:45.640 --> 00:07:48.160
Why is that? Why did I write that verse down?

94
00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.680
Well, it's because something God's speaking to me about in my life.

95
00:07:51.880 --> 00:07:53.680
And so I jot that down.

96
00:07:53.880 --> 00:07:59.440
And then at the end of my time reading the word and journaling,

97
00:07:59.640 --> 00:08:01.560
I try to put in application.

98
00:08:01.760 --> 00:08:03.760
A lot of times I'd even write application.

99
00:08:03.960 --> 00:08:05.720
And under that, what does that mean?

100
00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:10.200
So God, let's just say I'm reading God's word and he speaks to me about an area

101
00:08:10.200 --> 00:08:17.040
in my life that is not all together where God wants me to be.

102
00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:19.000
So I write down what that is.

103
00:08:19.200 --> 00:08:25.120
And and then my application would be.

104
00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:30.880
This needs to change in my life for me to realize new freedom

105
00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:34.600
from that area that's becoming kind of an addiction in my life.

106
00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:35.960
That makes sense.

107
00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.600
So, again, you're going to need a pen.

108
00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:40.280
You're going to need a journal.

109
00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:42.120
You're going to need a Bible.

110
00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.760
When we do that, God does something.

111
00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:46.560
And here's what's interesting,

112
00:08:46.760 --> 00:08:50.880
that the recent studies in neuroplasticity have shown.

113
00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:53.960
And what that is, is that the brain study of the brain,

114
00:08:54.160 --> 00:09:01.840
they call it neuroplasticity because they're finding that your brain can grow.

115
00:09:02.040 --> 00:09:04.280
And the reason you say, well, like, duh,

116
00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:09.200
well, it's not really, duh, because for years and years there was this

117
00:09:09.400 --> 00:09:14.560
belief that after about 30 years old, you pretty much your patterns and your

118
00:09:14.760 --> 00:09:20.680
behavior and even your brain was kind of stuck with where it was at at that point.

119
00:09:20.880 --> 00:09:23.360
But they're finding that to be absolutely not true.

120
00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:27.760
And it's especially with people who read and people who write,

121
00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:32.480
people who read things, new things, write down what they're learning.

122
00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:37.960
Neuroplasticity studies are showing that you can actually increase your brain

123
00:09:38.160 --> 00:09:42.120
capacity, but also you can actually increase your IQ.

124
00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:47.720
So that's what's exciting about coming to know Christ, following PB&J.

125
00:09:47.920 --> 00:09:50.080
It's not just a spiritual exercise.

126
00:09:50.280 --> 00:09:54.520
It's actually a mental and emotional exercise in your own life.

127
00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:55.960
So God can do that.

128
00:09:55.960 --> 00:09:57.720
And I think God's going to do that in your life.

129
00:09:57.920 --> 00:09:59.920
So I want to challenge you to PB&J.

130
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:07.620
start tomorrow get your Bible go to the gospel of John open it up start with

131
00:10:07.620 --> 00:10:12.980
chapter 1 take out your journal write down what God says to you make sure

132
00:10:12.980 --> 00:10:16.860
there's a part where you put in the application and the next day and the

133
00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:21.300
next day and the next day and here's what's interesting is that all the

134
00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:27.260
studies show that it takes about 21 to 30 days to develop a new habit so I want

135
00:10:27.260 --> 00:10:34.360
to challenge you to 21 to 30 straight days don't let anything get in your way

136
00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:40.820
from taking time to get alone with God open your Bible prayer and then

137
00:10:40.820 --> 00:10:45.260
journaling because you'll develop a new habit in your life by doing that and

138
00:10:45.260 --> 00:10:48.980
it's going to change your life man it's going to radically radically change your

139
00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:53.760
life and I wouldn't be where I'm at today and as I look back over my life I

140
00:10:53.760 --> 00:10:59.400
wouldn't have made virtually every major decision in my life was birthed

141
00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:04.880
out of PB&J spending time with the Lord and then God speaking in my heart about

142
00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:08.560
something that he's called me to do might admit that I was moving to a new

143
00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:13.320
location could be in the case of my relationship with Liz you know whether

144
00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:20.080
to marry her or not stuff at the church where I pastor right now most of that is

145
00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:25.000
birthed in my time with alone with the Lord in PB&J so let me challenge you

146
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:31.640
become a PB&J radical revolutionary Christian and watch what God will do in

147
00:11:31.640 --> 00:11:34.600
your life it will transform you from the inside out