July 17, 2025 • 26 mins
A study in the book of Philippians.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to K Waves Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
of our local Southern California pastors. This week we're pleased
to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Mark Ambrose,
senior pastor of Pacific Coast Church, where Mark has been
the pastor for 30 years. Pacific Coast Church has been
a vital part of the San Clemente community for.
(00:21):
For 60 years reaching multiple generations for the gospel of
Jesus Christ. This week, Dr. Ambrose is teaching a series
of lessons he calls how to find relief during anxious times.
If you have your Bible available, you want to have
it open to Philippians chapter 4 looking at verses 4
through 7. Now here's Doctor Mark Ambrose with today's study.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Clearly we live in anxious times. Clearly we live in
times of instability. Clearly we live in times where fear
and um worry and concern is, is top drawer.
Things can happen that can change that or make it worse,
but that those are the kind of times we live
in very tumultuous times to where we can be fragile.
(01:06):
So this is about caring for your mental health, but
more specifically guidelines from scripture of how God wants us
to do it. And if he wants us to do
it a certain way, it's gonna work. It's just whether
we do it or not. Now, I told you today
is part three. We talked about this topic, but we
weren't in Philippians. Now, if you know much about Philippians,
very interesting, written by the apostle Paul while he's in
(01:29):
prison in Rome.
The church at Philippi, he planted that church. He loves
that church, they love him.
They're extremely anxious.
That Paul's in prison. Is he going to die?
Are they going to kill him?
Why we've got to allow this.
(01:50):
Why aren't, why isn't he out God and planting more churches?
All the doubts, all the, this makes no sense, worry, worry, worry.
So Paul writes them a letter. And it's interesting because
the letters often referred to as the letter of joy.
Written from a prison cell.
So there's something to be said there. There's some insight
(02:11):
that we can pull in our own lives.
But he deals head on with their anxiety.
And he says this in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the
Lord always. Again.
I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about.
(02:34):
Anything. There's the command again.
I wanna read that again. I wanna read the verses again,
kind of settle into it. Rejoice in the Lord, how often?
Always. Hmm.
And in case you missed that, I'm gonna say it again.
Rejoice.
So driving this topic home.
(02:57):
Let your reasonableness, that literally means gentleness, not critical, not aggressive.
Spirit be made known to everyone.
Implying that what happens when we get anxious.
We're disrupted, we're disoriented, we get angry, we get impatient.
(03:22):
Road rage comes from anxiety.
So he's highlighting that the result of this will actually
Allow you to take a breath.
For the Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious.
Now the word rejoice.
It's a very complicated Greek word. It means rejoice.
(03:45):
Means be glad. It means be happy, not complicated.
Be happy
Always.
Now, what's interesting too, for Paul, he wrote, you know, uh,
1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, he wrote, you know, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Tide, right, he wrote a lot
(04:06):
of stuff in the Bible.
And he highlights this rejoice joy piece more than all
of them combined in 4 chapters, and yet he's in
a prison cell.
There's a secret to success here that we're gonna find
out about.
And he says, don't be anxious about anything, so all
(04:28):
the topics are on the table.
To be dealing with. So Paul's interestingly enough, commanding them
to be glad, to be happy. Now, how does that work?
Be happy.
In fact, it's an oxymoron that it's even a command.
Well, here's the deal. Don't leave out. Rejoice in the Lord.
(04:54):
Which now has to do with a perspective. You're not being,
you're rejoicing in the anxiety. You're you're getting outside of
that and rejoicing in the Lord. Sounds like a prior
point we talked about refocusing on God.
But it's more than that.
And Paul highlights this earlier in the letter.
(05:16):
Look what he says earlier to the church.
In Philippians one, the beginning of the letter, I want
you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me
has really served to advance the gospel.
So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial
guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is
for Christ.
(05:38):
And most of the brothers, having become confident in the
Lord by my imprisonment.
are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
In other words, he's not denying he's in prison.
And he's not denying he'd probably love to be out,
but he's highlighting what is good about the situation. He's
highlighting what has happened to the point where he's saying,
(06:01):
this has been good that I've been here because the
gospel has gone forward in ways that it never would
have had I not been. And he's also saying, and
this is empowered and emboldened.
The brothers in Christ to be more bold about their
faith because they're seeing me be bold about my faith.
And this is super important when we're talking about anxiety.
#1 or number 5, however you're keeping score, how to
(06:21):
find relief during anxious times, look for the good in
every situation.
Paul is demonstrating an important truth about anxiety.
Rather than just projecting negativity into the future.
He's saying what is good about right now?
Because that's part of the picture as well.
(06:45):
And he's not highlighting, you know, glass half empty, glass
half full. Well, negative projections is glass half empty.
And, and, and Paul's not just going glass half full.
He's looking at the whole glass. He's dealing with the
negative nanny.
They're saying, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's not all bad.
(07:05):
There's some good here.
And so now that locket photo of pain that often
has when we, when we're in pain, we get self-consumed, self-absorbed.
Now it starts to, to broaden out and you see
the broader picture and it's a real picture. So it's
not just accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. No, this
is a reality, but it takes a discipline to do it.
(07:26):
This is kind of what Jesus did in Matthew 6.
Look at the birds, look at the thing, you know,
look around, there's good.
Thanksgiving's coming up.
I don't know about your family, but our family traditionally.
Go around the table before we eat. What are you
(07:48):
thankful for?
Doesn't have to be long, doesn't have to be intense,
doesn't have to be, you know, whatever. What are you
thankful for? Something that comes to mind. And you can
imagine what the, the topic is, right, as we go
around the 1520 people sitting there, thankful for our family.
I'm thankful for our kids.
Maybe thankful for the parents, I'm not sure, but no,
(08:10):
I'm just kidding. Um.
Thankful
That I'm healthy.
Thank you, thankful for, I don't know, throw one out.
Yeah, sure, that works.
A job. Thank you for my income. Thank you for whatever.
(08:31):
Huh?
Oh, roof. OK. Thank you for the roof over my head. Perfect,
all that stuff. And right, and if you pres it.
I remember one person goes, thank you for air.
And it kind of stopped me cold and my client like.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's the most important thing to
(08:55):
be thankful for because you wouldn't have a roof if
you got no air. You wouldn't have a kid if
you have no air. You wouldn't have a job if
you have no air. It's like, that's the most important
thing to be thankful for.
You know where I'm going?
In every situation at a minimum.
(09:16):
You can say er
Right?
But it's a discipline because we focus on the negative
because that creates fear and fear creates emotion and emotion
I got to respond to. But if we pull back,
think about it, what are you anxious about today?
And
(09:36):
OK, that's real.
Now how you deal with that? Is that today or
is that tomorrow? So you got some of that thinking, um,
you know, worst case scenario.
I don't know, all those kinds of things, but let's
go the next step.
What are you thankful for today? What is good about
right now, right here?
(10:00):
I mean, the list goes on. Lord, I, I, I,
I thank you that I'm healthy enough to be in
this room.
I thank you that
I have clothes.
On
I, I thank you that
I have a doughnut in my stomach.
I thank you for the friends that I have. Even
(10:21):
though maybe I struggle with other friends, I thank you
for the friends I don't struggle with.
I thank you for the car that I drove here
to be in this room.
I thank you for the Bible that you gave me
to study.
I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for the
Holy Spirit.
I thank you for forgiveness.
(10:44):
There's a lot there.
That we can be thankful for.
That balances out the picture.
And when we balance out the picture, we reduce anxiety.
Takes discipline.
Because the other's painful.
And pain gets our attention a lot quicker than no pain.
(11:08):
But the more you practice that, me and my wife
even have a little game we play. We'll go for
a walk, 3 to 5 miles, 5 days a week,
4 days a week, we'll go for a walk. OK,
what's the letter today?
Yesterday it was B.
All right, what are you thankful for? This starts with
the letter B.
And you sit there and man, B is a hard letter.
(11:32):
And of course we can go immediately to our kids
cause I have two kids with the names that start
with a B.
But then after that, you know, and then, and then,
then you start going, thank you for bees.
Cause they pollinate.
And you know, see what I'm saying? And, and you
can even make it a game, but that kind of
stuff will get you thinking in ways that you are
(11:54):
not used to thinking, especially if you struggle with anxious thinking.
So anyway,
Look for the good.
In every situation.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
ministry of Doctor Mark Ambrose, senior pastor of Pacific Coast
Church in San Clemente. To learn more about PCC, visit
Pacific CoastChurch.org. And now let's continue with today's study in
Philippians chapter 4.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's amazing what this does to your body physically phys physiologically,
in other words, your thoughts.
Create neurotransmitters.
That affect your brain, that affect your body. I mean,
it's crazy, and I don't pretend to even be close
to an expert on this, but I've done enough reading
(12:48):
on it to where it's wild how God made our
body and how we think impacts our physical health, our
mental health, and so.
This is about just basically caring for your mental health.
What is good?
Do not be anxious about anything, he says in verse 6,
(13:08):
but in everything, look at this, anything and everything.
So don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, that literal supplication means literally pleading.
With Thanksgiving, oh, there's a C in the good.
Let your request be made known to God and the
peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your
(13:31):
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Look at that promise,
no anxiety.
Except protection and the shalom of God, the peace of God,
that means well-being.
To the well-being of God.
We have a feeling and it'll guard you.
It's a supernatural gift.
(13:53):
As a result of doing what we talked about last week.
Praying
So Paul specifically calls this out and guarantees what will help, prayer.
Let your request be made known. Now that, what's interesting
about that little piece, that little verb, don't want to
get complicated here, but it's a present passive verb, which
(14:15):
means it's an ongoing thing.
So continually let your request be made known to God,
not one and done, but continually do this. It's something
to participate in on a regular basis, a habit, an
action step. #2 on your outline, or number 6 in
(14:35):
the bigger scope, how to find relief during anxious times,
pray throughout the day.
Pray throughout the day.
When you think about how often when we kind of
depart from God's word a little bit and
Try to medicate on our own.
The kinds of things we do.
Drink
(14:58):
Eat
Sharp
Whatever. Fill in the blanks.
They may give a little bit of relief.
But they actually lead to more anxiety.
Because now we got a drinking problem.
Now we've gained a lot of weight.
(15:21):
Now we've gone broke.
Perfect medication, pray.
It's cheap
You don't have to get a prescription.
And he's saying basically, when you're anxious, be praying, take
the pill.
of prayer.
And Paul just didn't, I mean, this, this is the
(15:43):
secret sauce for the apostle Paul, 100%.
Because he says this over and over again, and he
says it from a place of experience. He told Pastor Timothy,
First Timothy, remember Timothy, young pastor, pastor in Ephesus, mature church,
a lot of anxiety for Timothy, a lot of struggle,
you looked down upon.
(16:06):
In 1 Timothy 5:17, he told him, pray without ceasing.
Stay on the meds.
Of prayer.
He told the Colossian Church.
Colossians 4:2, continual steadfast in prayer, being watchful.
(16:26):
In it with Thanksgiving. There it is again, the little combo.
Romans 12:12, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be
constant in prayer.
And Peter got this. First Peter 5:6, he says, humble yourself, therefore,
(16:47):
under God, the mighty hand of God, so that at
the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties.
How do you do that? Prayer on him because he
cares for you.
It's interesting. One of the most talked about topics in
the Bible is prayer. It's mentioned over 250 times.
(17:07):
And yet, when you read scripture, anxiety is everywhere.
It really is. The prophets and what they had to do,
are you kidding me? Moses and the patriarchs, what they
had to do. Anxiety was everywhere and yet prayer.
is everywhere in scripture. I read a survey.
(17:29):
By Pew Research
About Christians.
And how often
Do Christians pray?
Evangelicals
Any idea of percentages? What percentage of Christians pray daily?
55%.
55%, kind of encouraging, right? It's like, well, over half
(17:54):
Christians say they pray every day.
28%
Say they pray
Weekly
And another 22% say they pray seldom.
You think, OK.
That's pretty good.
You know, I was expecting to see like 4% or something, right?
(18:18):
Here's the key.
You know how long they pray.
Daily
Less than a minute
So even though they pray, they're not really praying.
And literally nobody prays over 5 minutes in the survey.
(18:42):
So,
What Paul's saying is, don't end the conversation.
Don't systematize it.
Don't relegate it to just before dinner. Don't relegate it
to my quiet time. Keep the conversation going.
(19:02):
And as anxiety comes in waves and lifts and gets
dark and lifts and gets dark, stay in that continual
conversation with God. Include him. Stay on the meds.
It's not one and done. That ain't going to work.
And that's why people don't pray, quite honestly, because they
don't pray long enough and hang in there long enough
(19:24):
and so they conclude that it doesn't work and if
it doesn't work, then I'll just do my token little,
you know, thank you for the food, God bless our
hearts and our minds and America and the world next. And,
and there's no like depth of, of, of reflection, there's
no depth of silence, there's no depth of understanding, there's
no
Intimacy. Think about it. Jesus was never caught studying. He
(19:47):
was caught what? Praying?
Do you think he had anxiety in that garden?
And what was he doing? He was praying.
The disciples, Jesus, of all the things Jesus did.
They didn't say, hey, can, can you show me that
loaves and fishes trick? Cause that'll work great. I can
(20:09):
make a living. there was guys that did that in
the book of Acts.
But disciples didn't. What did they ask Jesus, Teach us
how to pray.
There's power
In prayer.
If we do it right.
If we don't,
There's no power.
It'll just feel like words are bouncing off the ceiling.
(20:32):
It's not making a difference, but if we do it right.
The promise is supernatural peace, the shalom of God.
What is right? Well,
He uses words like
Supplication
You know what that means? pleading.
(20:52):
Mm.
So that carries this idea of desperateness, of humility.
That is the attitude.
You're, you're not coming to ask the genie in the
bottle to jump and grant wishes. You're desperate pleading with God,
please God, please God, please God, it's an attitude of humility.
(21:18):
It's almost like that, that scene, right? When, when it's,
when it's hardest to pray is when you need to
pray hard.
So there's that attitude.
Of supplication.
But with Thanksgiving,
So you start out
God, thank you.
For cause you've done that.
(21:40):
Process already. Now you turn it into a prayer.
And you're honoring God by doing that because you're telling
God what you recognize He is providing for you.
Right? It's like the little kid that keeps coming and
wanting more and more and more and more and more
and you give them a Christmas gift and they throw
that to decide, where's the next gift and they throw
that to decide where the, how do you feel as
a parent?
(22:01):
You feel like, ah, this kid's getting spoiled.
We got to slow them down. We got to say,
look at this gift, we're not doing. I, I'm gonna
do that, right? But you got to adjust them.
But if they come in and say thank you, thank you,
thank you.
And I really appreciate this. And I see how, you know,
the kids won't do this, but I see how you
wrap the gift and it looks nice and it's got
(22:22):
a bow on it. And I know you took time
to go out and spend good money and it's not
gonna happen.
But how would you feel if a parent if it happened?
Water to your soul, they appreciate it. OK, open the
next gift, right? So when we come to God with
that thanksgiving heart, it's honoring to him.
And then the text says, and make your request. That
word request literally refers to specific requests. Be specific with God.
(22:48):
So what are you struggling with, specifically?
God, I'm anxious over money.
I'm worried
I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel,
and I don't even want to look at the tunnel
because I don't know the tunnel. So prevent me from
going in the tunnel.
But God, if I'm honest, I'm anxious over my kids.
(23:11):
Or a relationship.
Whatever.
A spouse.
A marriage
And what do you want?
God help me.
Give me some relief. Give me a lift.
(23:33):
Help my sensitization be minimal.
Give me a good night's sleep. Help me to fall asleep.
What is it specifically you want?
And the text says you, you do it with supplication
so you please with God. You plead with him, heal me,
show me, direct me, bring me relief.
(23:57):
Because when we do this,
In a consistent conversational don't say amen button it up
and turn it off till the next session.
But we do this in a conversational way that you
are opening yourself up to the power of God and
ultimately experiencing a lift and relief.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And with that we bring today's study titled How to
Find Relief During Anxious Times Part 3 to a close
here on Pastor Spotlight. Doctor Mark Ambrose will be back
tomorrow as he continues the same theme from Philippians chapter 4,
so we invite you to be right here at the
same time tomorrow. You know, you and your family are
invited to join Pastor Mark at Pacific Coast Church this
(24:40):
next Sunday morning. PCC is conveniently located at 2651 Calle.
Frontera in San Clemente Sunday morning worship service times are
at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Pacific Coast Church is here
to help everyone know and follow Jesus in an honest
and transparent way. Their mission is to reach people for Jesus,
(25:00):
grow followers of Jesus, and connect together in Jesus. At
PCC you'll find a safe place to pursue Jesus, no
matter where you are on your spiritual journey.
Pacific Coast Church serves the entire family, and that's why
you'll want to know about the ministry called Surfside Kids.
Surfside Kids meets every Wednesday night, and it's for infants
(25:22):
up to 5th graders. It's a place for kids to
develop friendships, have fun, and learn about God each week.
To learn more about the Surfside Kids Ministry, visit PCC's
website at Pacific CoastChurch.org/kids.
And we invite you to join us right here at
the same time tomorrow for another time of growing in
the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ right here on
(25:44):
Pastor Spotlight, we'll feature more from the Bible teaching ministry
of Doctor Mark Ambrose, senior pastor of Pacific Coast Church
in San Clemente. We hope you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight
is a production of Kwave Radio sharing life, delivering truth,
giving hope.
Welcome to K Waves Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
of our local Southern California pastors. This week we're pleased
to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Mark Ambrose,
senior pastor of Pacific Coast Church, where Mark has been
the pastor for 30 years. Pacific Coast Church has been
a vital part of the San Clemente community for.
(00:21):
For 60 years reaching multiple generations for the gospel of
Jesus Christ. This week, Dr. Ambrose is teaching a series
of lessons he calls how to find relief during anxious times.
If you have your Bible available, you want to have
it open to Philippians chapter 4 looking at verses 4
through 7. Now here's Doctor Mark Ambrose with today's study.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Clearly we live in anxious times. Clearly we live in
times of instability. Clearly we live in times where fear
and um worry and concern is, is top drawer.
Things can happen that can change that or make it worse,
but that those are the kind of times we live
in very tumultuous times to where we can be fragile.
(01:06):
So this is about caring for your mental health, but
more specifically guidelines from scripture of how God wants us
to do it. And if he wants us to do
it a certain way, it's gonna work. It's just whether
we do it or not. Now, I told you today
is part three. We talked about this topic, but we
weren't in Philippians. Now, if you know much about Philippians,
very interesting, written by the apostle Paul while he's in
(01:29):
prison in Rome.
The church at Philippi, he planted that church. He loves
that church, they love him.
They're extremely anxious.
That Paul's in prison. Is he going to die?
Are they going to kill him?
Why we've got to allow this.
(01:50):
Why aren't, why isn't he out God and planting more churches?
All the doubts, all the, this makes no sense, worry, worry, worry.
So Paul writes them a letter. And it's interesting because
the letters often referred to as the letter of joy.
Written from a prison cell.
So there's something to be said there. There's some insight
(02:11):
that we can pull in our own lives.
But he deals head on with their anxiety.
And he says this in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the
Lord always. Again.
I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about.
(02:34):
Anything. There's the command again.
I wanna read that again. I wanna read the verses again,
kind of settle into it. Rejoice in the Lord, how often?
Always. Hmm.
And in case you missed that, I'm gonna say it again.
Rejoice.
So driving this topic home.
(02:57):
Let your reasonableness, that literally means gentleness, not critical, not aggressive.
Spirit be made known to everyone.
Implying that what happens when we get anxious.
We're disrupted, we're disoriented, we get angry, we get impatient.
(03:22):
Road rage comes from anxiety.
So he's highlighting that the result of this will actually
Allow you to take a breath.
For the Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious.
Now the word rejoice.
It's a very complicated Greek word. It means rejoice.
(03:45):
Means be glad. It means be happy, not complicated.
Be happy
Always.
Now, what's interesting too, for Paul, he wrote, you know, uh,
1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, he wrote, you know, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Tide, right, he wrote a lot
(04:06):
of stuff in the Bible.
And he highlights this rejoice joy piece more than all
of them combined in 4 chapters, and yet he's in
a prison cell.
There's a secret to success here that we're gonna find
out about.
And he says, don't be anxious about anything, so all
(04:28):
the topics are on the table.
To be dealing with. So Paul's interestingly enough, commanding them
to be glad, to be happy. Now, how does that work?
Be happy.
In fact, it's an oxymoron that it's even a command.
Well, here's the deal. Don't leave out. Rejoice in the Lord.
(04:54):
Which now has to do with a perspective. You're not being,
you're rejoicing in the anxiety. You're you're getting outside of
that and rejoicing in the Lord. Sounds like a prior
point we talked about refocusing on God.
But it's more than that.
And Paul highlights this earlier in the letter.
(05:16):
Look what he says earlier to the church.
In Philippians one, the beginning of the letter, I want
you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me
has really served to advance the gospel.
So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial
guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is
for Christ.
(05:38):
And most of the brothers, having become confident in the
Lord by my imprisonment.
are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
In other words, he's not denying he's in prison.
And he's not denying he'd probably love to be out,
but he's highlighting what is good about the situation. He's
highlighting what has happened to the point where he's saying,
(06:01):
this has been good that I've been here because the
gospel has gone forward in ways that it never would
have had I not been. And he's also saying, and
this is empowered and emboldened.
The brothers in Christ to be more bold about their
faith because they're seeing me be bold about my faith.
And this is super important when we're talking about anxiety.
#1 or number 5, however you're keeping score, how to
(06:21):
find relief during anxious times, look for the good in
every situation.
Paul is demonstrating an important truth about anxiety.
Rather than just projecting negativity into the future.
He's saying what is good about right now?
Because that's part of the picture as well.
(06:45):
And he's not highlighting, you know, glass half empty, glass
half full. Well, negative projections is glass half empty.
And, and, and Paul's not just going glass half full.
He's looking at the whole glass. He's dealing with the
negative nanny.
They're saying, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's not all bad.
(07:05):
There's some good here.
And so now that locket photo of pain that often
has when we, when we're in pain, we get self-consumed, self-absorbed.
Now it starts to, to broaden out and you see
the broader picture and it's a real picture. So it's
not just accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. No, this
is a reality, but it takes a discipline to do it.
(07:26):
This is kind of what Jesus did in Matthew 6.
Look at the birds, look at the thing, you know,
look around, there's good.
Thanksgiving's coming up.
I don't know about your family, but our family traditionally.
Go around the table before we eat. What are you
(07:48):
thankful for?
Doesn't have to be long, doesn't have to be intense,
doesn't have to be, you know, whatever. What are you
thankful for? Something that comes to mind. And you can
imagine what the, the topic is, right, as we go
around the 1520 people sitting there, thankful for our family.
I'm thankful for our kids.
Maybe thankful for the parents, I'm not sure, but no,
(08:10):
I'm just kidding. Um.
Thankful
That I'm healthy.
Thank you, thankful for, I don't know, throw one out.
Yeah, sure, that works.
A job. Thank you for my income. Thank you for whatever.
(08:31):
Huh?
Oh, roof. OK. Thank you for the roof over my head. Perfect,
all that stuff. And right, and if you pres it.
I remember one person goes, thank you for air.
And it kind of stopped me cold and my client like.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's the most important thing to
(08:55):
be thankful for because you wouldn't have a roof if
you got no air. You wouldn't have a kid if
you have no air. You wouldn't have a job if
you have no air. It's like, that's the most important
thing to be thankful for.
You know where I'm going?
In every situation at a minimum.
(09:16):
You can say er
Right?
But it's a discipline because we focus on the negative
because that creates fear and fear creates emotion and emotion
I got to respond to. But if we pull back,
think about it, what are you anxious about today?
And
(09:36):
OK, that's real.
Now how you deal with that? Is that today or
is that tomorrow? So you got some of that thinking, um,
you know, worst case scenario.
I don't know, all those kinds of things, but let's
go the next step.
What are you thankful for today? What is good about
right now, right here?
(10:00):
I mean, the list goes on. Lord, I, I, I,
I thank you that I'm healthy enough to be in
this room.
I thank you that
I have clothes.
On
I, I thank you that
I have a doughnut in my stomach.
I thank you for the friends that I have. Even
(10:21):
though maybe I struggle with other friends, I thank you
for the friends I don't struggle with.
I thank you for the car that I drove here
to be in this room.
I thank you for the Bible that you gave me
to study.
I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for the
Holy Spirit.
I thank you for forgiveness.
(10:44):
There's a lot there.
That we can be thankful for.
That balances out the picture.
And when we balance out the picture, we reduce anxiety.
Takes discipline.
Because the other's painful.
And pain gets our attention a lot quicker than no pain.
(11:08):
But the more you practice that, me and my wife
even have a little game we play. We'll go for
a walk, 3 to 5 miles, 5 days a week,
4 days a week, we'll go for a walk. OK,
what's the letter today?
Yesterday it was B.
All right, what are you thankful for? This starts with
the letter B.
And you sit there and man, B is a hard letter.
(11:32):
And of course we can go immediately to our kids
cause I have two kids with the names that start
with a B.
But then after that, you know, and then, and then,
then you start going, thank you for bees.
Cause they pollinate.
And you know, see what I'm saying? And, and you
can even make it a game, but that kind of
stuff will get you thinking in ways that you are
(11:54):
not used to thinking, especially if you struggle with anxious thinking.
So anyway,
Look for the good.
In every situation.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
ministry of Doctor Mark Ambrose, senior pastor of Pacific Coast
Church in San Clemente. To learn more about PCC, visit
Pacific CoastChurch.org. And now let's continue with today's study in
Philippians chapter 4.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's amazing what this does to your body physically phys physiologically,
in other words, your thoughts.
Create neurotransmitters.
That affect your brain, that affect your body. I mean,
it's crazy, and I don't pretend to even be close
to an expert on this, but I've done enough reading
(12:48):
on it to where it's wild how God made our
body and how we think impacts our physical health, our
mental health, and so.
This is about just basically caring for your mental health.
What is good?
Do not be anxious about anything, he says in verse 6,
(13:08):
but in everything, look at this, anything and everything.
So don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, that literal supplication means literally pleading.
With Thanksgiving, oh, there's a C in the good.
Let your request be made known to God and the
peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your
(13:31):
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Look at that promise,
no anxiety.
Except protection and the shalom of God, the peace of God,
that means well-being.
To the well-being of God.
We have a feeling and it'll guard you.
It's a supernatural gift.
(13:53):
As a result of doing what we talked about last week.
Praying
So Paul specifically calls this out and guarantees what will help, prayer.
Let your request be made known. Now that, what's interesting
about that little piece, that little verb, don't want to
get complicated here, but it's a present passive verb, which
(14:15):
means it's an ongoing thing.
So continually let your request be made known to God,
not one and done, but continually do this. It's something
to participate in on a regular basis, a habit, an
action step. #2 on your outline, or number 6 in
(14:35):
the bigger scope, how to find relief during anxious times,
pray throughout the day.
Pray throughout the day.
When you think about how often when we kind of
depart from God's word a little bit and
Try to medicate on our own.
The kinds of things we do.
Drink
(14:58):
Eat
Sharp
Whatever. Fill in the blanks.
They may give a little bit of relief.
But they actually lead to more anxiety.
Because now we got a drinking problem.
Now we've gained a lot of weight.
(15:21):
Now we've gone broke.
Perfect medication, pray.
It's cheap
You don't have to get a prescription.
And he's saying basically, when you're anxious, be praying, take
the pill.
of prayer.
And Paul just didn't, I mean, this, this is the
(15:43):
secret sauce for the apostle Paul, 100%.
Because he says this over and over again, and he
says it from a place of experience. He told Pastor Timothy,
First Timothy, remember Timothy, young pastor, pastor in Ephesus, mature church,
a lot of anxiety for Timothy, a lot of struggle,
you looked down upon.
(16:06):
In 1 Timothy 5:17, he told him, pray without ceasing.
Stay on the meds.
Of prayer.
He told the Colossian Church.
Colossians 4:2, continual steadfast in prayer, being watchful.
(16:26):
In it with Thanksgiving. There it is again, the little combo.
Romans 12:12, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be
constant in prayer.
And Peter got this. First Peter 5:6, he says, humble yourself, therefore,
(16:47):
under God, the mighty hand of God, so that at
the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties.
How do you do that? Prayer on him because he
cares for you.
It's interesting. One of the most talked about topics in
the Bible is prayer. It's mentioned over 250 times.
(17:07):
And yet, when you read scripture, anxiety is everywhere.
It really is. The prophets and what they had to do,
are you kidding me? Moses and the patriarchs, what they
had to do. Anxiety was everywhere and yet prayer.
is everywhere in scripture. I read a survey.
(17:29):
By Pew Research
About Christians.
And how often
Do Christians pray?
Evangelicals
Any idea of percentages? What percentage of Christians pray daily?
55%.
55%, kind of encouraging, right? It's like, well, over half
(17:54):
Christians say they pray every day.
28%
Say they pray
Weekly
And another 22% say they pray seldom.
You think, OK.
That's pretty good.
You know, I was expecting to see like 4% or something, right?
(18:18):
Here's the key.
You know how long they pray.
Daily
Less than a minute
So even though they pray, they're not really praying.
And literally nobody prays over 5 minutes in the survey.
(18:42):
So,
What Paul's saying is, don't end the conversation.
Don't systematize it.
Don't relegate it to just before dinner. Don't relegate it
to my quiet time. Keep the conversation going.
(19:02):
And as anxiety comes in waves and lifts and gets
dark and lifts and gets dark, stay in that continual
conversation with God. Include him. Stay on the meds.
It's not one and done. That ain't going to work.
And that's why people don't pray, quite honestly, because they
don't pray long enough and hang in there long enough
(19:24):
and so they conclude that it doesn't work and if
it doesn't work, then I'll just do my token little,
you know, thank you for the food, God bless our
hearts and our minds and America and the world next. And,
and there's no like depth of, of, of reflection, there's
no depth of silence, there's no depth of understanding, there's
no
Intimacy. Think about it. Jesus was never caught studying. He
(19:47):
was caught what? Praying?
Do you think he had anxiety in that garden?
And what was he doing? He was praying.
The disciples, Jesus, of all the things Jesus did.
They didn't say, hey, can, can you show me that
loaves and fishes trick? Cause that'll work great. I can
(20:09):
make a living. there was guys that did that in
the book of Acts.
But disciples didn't. What did they ask Jesus, Teach us
how to pray.
There's power
In prayer.
If we do it right.
If we don't,
There's no power.
It'll just feel like words are bouncing off the ceiling.
(20:32):
It's not making a difference, but if we do it right.
The promise is supernatural peace, the shalom of God.
What is right? Well,
He uses words like
Supplication
You know what that means? pleading.
(20:52):
Mm.
So that carries this idea of desperateness, of humility.
That is the attitude.
You're, you're not coming to ask the genie in the
bottle to jump and grant wishes. You're desperate pleading with God,
please God, please God, please God, it's an attitude of humility.
(21:18):
It's almost like that, that scene, right? When, when it's,
when it's hardest to pray is when you need to
pray hard.
So there's that attitude.
Of supplication.
But with Thanksgiving,
So you start out
God, thank you.
For cause you've done that.
(21:40):
Process already. Now you turn it into a prayer.
And you're honoring God by doing that because you're telling
God what you recognize He is providing for you.
Right? It's like the little kid that keeps coming and
wanting more and more and more and more and more
and you give them a Christmas gift and they throw
that to decide, where's the next gift and they throw
that to decide where the, how do you feel as
a parent?
(22:01):
You feel like, ah, this kid's getting spoiled.
We got to slow them down. We got to say,
look at this gift, we're not doing. I, I'm gonna
do that, right? But you got to adjust them.
But if they come in and say thank you, thank you,
thank you.
And I really appreciate this. And I see how, you know,
the kids won't do this, but I see how you
wrap the gift and it looks nice and it's got
(22:22):
a bow on it. And I know you took time
to go out and spend good money and it's not
gonna happen.
But how would you feel if a parent if it happened?
Water to your soul, they appreciate it. OK, open the
next gift, right? So when we come to God with
that thanksgiving heart, it's honoring to him.
And then the text says, and make your request. That
word request literally refers to specific requests. Be specific with God.
(22:48):
So what are you struggling with, specifically?
God, I'm anxious over money.
I'm worried
I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel,
and I don't even want to look at the tunnel
because I don't know the tunnel. So prevent me from
going in the tunnel.
But God, if I'm honest, I'm anxious over my kids.
(23:11):
Or a relationship.
Whatever.
A spouse.
A marriage
And what do you want?
God help me.
Give me some relief. Give me a lift.
(23:33):
Help my sensitization be minimal.
Give me a good night's sleep. Help me to fall asleep.
What is it specifically you want?
And the text says you, you do it with supplication
so you please with God. You plead with him, heal me,
show me, direct me, bring me relief.
(23:57):
Because when we do this,
In a consistent conversational don't say amen button it up
and turn it off till the next session.
But we do this in a conversational way that you
are opening yourself up to the power of God and
ultimately experiencing a lift and relief.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And with that we bring today's study titled How to
Find Relief During Anxious Times Part 3 to a close
here on Pastor Spotlight. Doctor Mark Ambrose will be back
tomorrow as he continues the same theme from Philippians chapter 4,
so we invite you to be right here at the
same time tomorrow. You know, you and your family are
invited to join Pastor Mark at Pacific Coast Church this
(24:40):
next Sunday morning. PCC is conveniently located at 2651 Calle.
Frontera in San Clemente Sunday morning worship service times are
at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Pacific Coast Church is here
to help everyone know and follow Jesus in an honest
and transparent way. Their mission is to reach people for Jesus,
(25:00):
grow followers of Jesus, and connect together in Jesus. At
PCC you'll find a safe place to pursue Jesus, no
matter where you are on your spiritual journey.
Pacific Coast Church serves the entire family, and that's why
you'll want to know about the ministry called Surfside Kids.
Surfside Kids meets every Wednesday night, and it's for infants
(25:22):
up to 5th graders. It's a place for kids to
develop friendships, have fun, and learn about God each week.
To learn more about the Surfside Kids Ministry, visit PCC's
website at Pacific CoastChurch.org/kids.
And we invite you to join us right here at
the same time tomorrow for another time of growing in
the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ right here on
(25:44):
Pastor Spotlight, we'll feature more from the Bible teaching ministry
of Doctor Mark Ambrose, senior pastor of Pacific Coast Church
in San Clemente. We hope you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight
is a production of Kwave Radio sharing life, delivering truth,
giving hope.
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