July 17, 2025 • 25 mins
A study in the book of Philippians.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 over
(00:21):
60 years.
Reaching multiple generations for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week, Dr.
Ambrose has been teaching on the topic of how to
find relief during anxious times. The first two messages came
from the Savior's sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6,
and yesterday and today's message, focus on Philippians chapter 4
and specifically today in verse 8. Now
Speaker 2 (00:42):
here's
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Doctor Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Let's keep talking because Paul is in verse.
8, finally brothers.
Whatever's true.
Whatever's honorable.
Whatever is just.
Whatever's pure.
Whatever's lovely.
(01:07):
Whatever's commendable.
If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy
of praise, think about these things.
I'm gonna read that again.
And fill in a little.
Kind of contrast that. So let's keep that passage up there.
(01:27):
Finally, brothers, whatever's true.
Versus a lie.
Whatever is honorable, that word means sacred.
Versus dishonorable.
Whatever is just, that word literally means innocent versus abusive.
(01:51):
Whatever is pure.
versus polluted.
Whatever is lovely, that means agreeable.
Has to do with our language versus divisive, mm.
Whatever's commendable, utterly virtuous in speaking versus crass.
(02:17):
If anything is excellent, if anything is worthy of praise,
think about these things. Think about these things as a
command in the tense of the verb, but it's an
ongoing command. Continue to think about these things. Continue to
meditate on these things. Continue to focus on these things.
(02:37):
He is giving the secret.
The secret
To prevent anxiety, it's proactive.
Paul is highlighting the truth. You are what you think.
Garbage in the opposite of these garbage out.
Good in
(02:59):
Good
Anxiety is is a product of what you expose yourself,
here's the key, and your thinking patterns too.
That's what anxiety is.
It's thoughts.
(03:21):
So
If my thoughts can cause me harm.
Then
It's important I monitor my thoughts.
So I don't create harm.
If my thoughts can cause me good, it's important that
I pay attention to my thoughts because it can be good.
(03:42):
You are what you think.
So #1 this morning or #7 in the list, how
to find relief during anxious times, monitor your mental input.
Last week we talked about trying to find the good
in a situation. You'll be less likely to do that
(04:02):
if you're constantly exposing yourself to negative input.
It'll be hard to do that.
We joke about the word negative nanny.
That happens over time based on input.
(04:22):
Proverbs 4:20 talks about how this even goes beyond.
Our mental health. My son, pay attention to what I say.
Listen to my words. Do not let them out of
your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are
life to those who find them and health to a
man's whole body.
(04:45):
I was reading a Harvard survey.
75 to 98% of all mental, physical, and behavioral illnesses
comes from your thought life.
That's amazing.
This means that 2 to 25%
(05:06):
Is your environment or genetics.
Research shows that your thought life impacts your genes.
And can actually change your DNA.
Wild
(05:28):
I did a little reading on that this week, and
all I can tell you is the more I've read,
the more jaw-dropping it was.
How God made us.
And our brains.
And what's involved in our brains.
Just the idea that your thoughts are chemicals.
(05:49):
It is wild.
We don't think, we think thoughts are air, idea. We
don't think they're liquid.
But you know, you've heard about some of these.
They call them neurotransmitters.
These thoughts, these liquids, dopamine, you've heard of that, right?
(06:11):
It's a classic one. Everybody talks about dopamine. That's the,
that's the feel good. You've heard of oxytocin.
Those are the thoughts of trust.
And bonding
That happened very early in a child's life.
You've heard of serotonin.
(06:31):
That has to do with your mood and your memory.
And you've probably heard of norepinephrine.
That is the flight or fight.
Chemical thought, anxiety, if you will.
So a healthy life.
(06:52):
is a healthy brain chemistry.
But when the brain chemistry gets off whack based on thinking,
Cause remember thinking.
triggers the chemical.
It's kind of like, think about a bar and you
got all these tap poles, right? And so if you
have an anxious thought,
(07:17):
Anxious chemistry goes into your brain. If you have a
feel good thought, dopamine goes into your brain. And when
these things are out of balance, when there's too much
dopamine or it's falsely achieved through drugs, through things that will,
then it's, it's on all the time, and this creates
(07:37):
an addiction.
That you need that again. You think you need that again,
but your body doesn't, you know, your body makes all
these chemicals.
The key is balance.
It's wild. And so the more
That chemical is released, it develops a neuro pathway.
(07:59):
Which is like a groove.
Do you realize that, and I don't, I, I'm just,
this is just one week of reading on it, so
I'm not an expert. Some of you are going, well,
you got that little bit wrong. Well, OK, whatever. I,
I'm the 80% rule here, OK?
And your brain is changing daily. OK, here's a mind.
(08:20):
Do you realize that you have 100,000?
Chemical interactions going on per second in your brain.
And your brain is constantly changing. Why would it be
constantly changing based on your thought pattern, which releases the chemicals,
which creates the grooves. Get where I'm going?
(08:44):
You can change your brain.
And some of us are so conditioned our brain based
on our thought life or what we allow in, that
we got strong deep neural pathways. Can they change? Absolutely
they can change.
That's why Jesus could say, Don't be anxious. You have
a decision.
Whether it can change or not, I have a decision.
(09:09):
It expands it a little more. I know it has
for me.
When I, when I, even I thought, you know, I
was monitoring kind of my negativity or different things, and
I thought, oh, don't go there. I don't want that
pathway to get deeper. Slow down on the tap, right?
Like there's physiological things that happen as a result of it,
and God made it that way.
(09:29):
It's kind of wild. So that's why Paul can say, hey,
focus on this good stuff.
Because it'll have lasting effects on your life physiologically.
Hm, I don't know. For me,
It was crazy.
Yeah, there's a, I, I'll tell you in a second,
(09:53):
but your brain being able to change, you've heard of neuroplasticity?
Yeah, you haven't. OK. It just means it can just
think of plastic and it can be molded. OK. So
what does that look like? Well, I'll tell you what
it looked like for me. I told you, you know, what,
a month ago I was in Europe for 3 weeks.
I didn't look at my phone. I didn't turn on
(10:13):
the news. I didn't turn on the TV.
No input
For 3 weeks from media.
Unreal.
I have a SOCOM. This is right at the height
of the election.
Right, where everybody's chirping. I didn't hear anybody's voice. I
(10:33):
didn't hear Trump's, I didn't hear Kamala's, I didn't hear CNN's,
I didn't hear Fox. I didn't hear any but it
was so calming.
I felt almost like insulated.
Like they can't get me.
I'm in the middle of the Swiss Alps. Who can
get me there?
Right? It was just so regulating. And then right when
(10:54):
I hit.
Right when everything starts going dysregulation immediately.
What if what if and I really don't think we
were made for what we're experiencing.
And that's why a lot of dysregulation takes place.
Overstimulation.
(11:16):
I think that's why we struggle, and it's the number
one anxiety is the number one mental illness that is today.
Because of the input, the input, the input.
I just encourage you to take a, take a.
Social media sabbatical.
And replace it with something else. Go for a walk.
(11:39):
Go look at a tree.
We live by the ocean
Go now and sit there and watch that.
That's lovely.
That's praiseworthy.
Stop and ask yourself the question.
Is this good for me?
(12:01):
To watch this, to ingest this, to ponder this. Is
this good for me?
Or am I, am I allowing crassness? Am I allowing criticism, am,
am I allowing, uh, you know, division? Am I allowing
all these things? You know, if I allowed all these things,
why am, why am I surprised when I struggle? One
(12:23):
of the first things I ask a couple if they
come in and they're or even individuals and they're struggling,
they can't sleep at night. I, first thing, first thing
I ask, what are you watching on TV? Oh, you know,
911 shows.
Well, of course, you're concerned about the guy coming in
with a knife and da da da because you've been
ingesting that.
(12:45):
Right? We know this for our kids, don't we? We
wouldn't show them anything that's disrupting cause they might not sleep.
They got the same brain.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
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. Now let's continue with today's study in Philippians 4:8.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Monitor your mental input. If you're at the men's breakfast
last week, Oscar talked a little bit about this, but I,
I really, I really took to heart. He does a
um uh annual sabbatical where the first of the year,
for the 1st 3 weeks of the year, he turns
his phone off.
In terms of media, I mean, he's got to answer
(13:37):
texts every once in a while because he's got a job,
but other than that, no input.
Now you might think that's hard.
And if you think that's hard, that's telling.
But I'm telling you, it's not. It'll be refreshing. I
should tell you something about your brain, your chemistry, what
you're doing to protect or not protect.
(13:59):
OK, let's keep reading.
What you have learned and received and heard and seen
in me practice these things.
And the God of peace will be with you.
Another promise of peace.
Practice
Present active imperative verb. What's that mean? Keep practicing. You
(14:23):
can make it a participle, practicing, keep practicing. Not practice,
this isn't one and done.
This isn't something that you're going to get by next week.
This isn't something you're going to get down.
In a month
Arguably, how long did it take your brain to get
to the place it is from a chemical standpoint. It
(14:45):
wasn't overnight. A lot of things feed into that. Our
childhood feeds into that, trauma feeds into that. A lot
of things feed into that.
And so just by kind of doing a couple of
these things randomly isn't gonna change a whole lot. He said,
practice these things. Continue to do these things. In other words,
(15:08):
it's a life work. This is a marathon.
Not a sprint.
Cause if it's a sprint, we wouldn't have a problem.
We'd have it fixed super easy.
So this is our 2nd and final point, how to
find relief during anxious times, be patient with yourself.
(15:28):
As you practice, as you practice, as you practice.
Managing your expectations will be the key.
Cause you wonder why, probably it's not happening quicker.
And then what can happen is you can be anxious
about being anxious.
(15:51):
And it's a cycle.
And now we've created a cycle.
Where it's on chemical, chemical chem chemical dump.
And some people have gotten to the point where they
can't flip that off.
They need to medicate in order to flip it off
(16:11):
for a while.
But being patient with yourself.
The temptation is
I did like you said.
I stopped watching that bad show.
I did like you said, I took a 3 week sabbatical.
I did like you said, I, I looked for the
(16:32):
good in this situation. Awesome.
Keep practicing.
There's nothing in life that you become a pro overnight
on by practicing once.
And the more you practice, the better you'll get at it. See,
this has to do with now how we measure success.
So do we measure success by the relief we experience,
(16:54):
or do we measure success by the amount of practicing
we're doing?
I would suggest to do the other.
It's like, it's like a football player complaining he's
Not a pro yet and he rarely practices. And, and
think about pro athletes or anything that somebody's really good
(17:16):
at it. They don't just practice when there's a problem,
they practice as a way of life.
But you got to be patient with yourself.
You got to lower your expectations, Sam, this is a marathon.
One day at a time.
One step at a time.
(17:37):
But as you continue to do it over time.
And you look back, you say, I'm better today than
I was last year.
I'm more balanced today. I'm more regulated today than I
was last year. I know more about myself last year. I,
I've got disciplines in my life compared to last year.
(18:02):
I mean, the Christian life is defined this way.
Right? I mean, look at Paul's encouragement to Pastor Timothy.
Endure hardship with us, like a good soldier of Christ.
Verse 5, he says, similar, if anyone competes as an athlete,
he does not compete the uh to receive, he does
not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to
the rules. Look at this, the hardworking farmer should be
(18:24):
the first to receive a share of the crop. Look
at how Christian life is defined. A soldier, an athlete,
a farmer, that's work. That takes time, that takes effort.
That's not overnight.
I discovered there's a lot being discussed today.
In the study, it's called neuroheology.
(18:47):
Which is interesting.
And they're really seeing a connection.
Between a belief in God.
And physical health.
In fact, a great book, I would recommend you get it.
I'm about halfway through it.
It's called Switch on Your Brain by Doctor Caroline Lafe.
(19:09):
Maybe some of you have heard of her.
Again, it's not a perfect book. I, I've only read
half of it, but it's been very insightful because she's
a neuro whatever surgeon or neurologist at least that.
Makes these connections between scripture.
(19:29):
And our brains
But
She says, listen to this, cause we talked about how
important prayer is. Prayer stimulates serotonin.
Which is a mood stabilizer, and dopamine, the reward and
pleasure system chemical.
(19:50):
These are chemicals and messengers that communicate to the nerves
and affect how we view the world. The more you
engage in prayer, the longer lasting and deeper the changes
occur in the brain.
She literally said 12 minutes of prayer per day over
8 weeks can change the brain enough that the change
comes up on a scan.
(20:15):
And God made it
Mm.
So let me suggest some practices. Do you have some
practices in your life?
Those of you that struggle with this.
Cause we're gonna focus on things that are lovely pure
(20:38):
or no. OK, so what, what is the practice of that?
Well, there's a physical piece.
Somatic exercises. Have you ever heard of that? Somatic exercises?
If not, Google it.
They're just physical exercises.
That calm you down.
Physically
(21:00):
Anybody will tell you that when you exercise physically, it's
good for your body.
It's good for your brain. You go for walks.
Have some kind of
Exercise regimen. There's the physical.
Then there's also the emotional.
(21:21):
A lot of times when you're caught in anxiety and
you're dealing with hyperfocus.
Hyperintentionality.
If you can step into something that's praiseworthy or lovely
like a hobby.
Changing that hyperfocus. I know what's really popular today. And
it's super interesting to me in terms of anxiety and
(21:44):
women in our culture is painting by numbers.
Some of you are laughing because you know what, what
it does is take that hyper focus and now it
puts it into something and, and you're not mind grinding anymore,
you're moving forward. So there's a lot of different things
you could do a hobby.
(22:06):
Work
Doing something with your hands.
Then there's a spiritual piece. We talked about that prayer,
prayer time. Now you, now you know, if you want
to change your brain 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks,
check your brain. She said it's gonna be changed, adds
a whole new meaning to prayer partners up here, doesn't it?
These people aren't just going to pray with you and
(22:28):
encourage you, they're going to change your brain.
Or help you to.
Reading God's word, listening to healthy podcasts.
Input, monitoring the input, learning about yourself.
And then there's the relational piece.
(22:51):
Limiting the input of people that aren't good for you.
Protecting your own mental health.
And hanging around people that are good for you.
So there's physical, there's emotional, there's spiritual, there's relational.
(23:14):
Scripture
In science, both show
That we're wired for love.
And optimism
That was before the fall.
Then sin came in the world, negativity, and it impacts
our thinking, and we make negative choices, and the quality
(23:36):
of our thinking suffers.
But if we deal with this in a healthy way,
in a biblical way, it can actually change the architecture
of your mind.
So I encourage you.
Take these 8 steps, give them some thought.
Put them into action.
Not one and done.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And with that we bring today's study titled How to
Find Relief During Anxious Times Part 4 to a close
here on Pastor Spotlight. We hope you've enjoyed and been
blessed by Doctor Mark Ambrose's study in living righteously in
overcoming anxiety.
You know, you and your family are invited to join
Pastor Mark at Pacific Coast Church this next Sunday morning.
(24:21):
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, grow followers of Jesus,
(24:41):
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. On
Friday night, January 31st, Pacific Coast Church invites all men
to the men's summit. You're gonna be encouraged and inspired
by special guest speaker, Michael Franzese. Michael Franzes is a
(25:03):
former New York mafia boss who now travels the world
sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sign up now for
your spot at the men's Summit on.
January 31st by going to PCC's website at pacificcoastChurch.org/men, and
we invite you to join us right here at this
same time Monday for another time of growing in the
(25:23):
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ here on Pastor Spotlight,
we'll feature the teaching of another one of our wonderful
pastors from here in the Southern California area. 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 over
(00:21):
60 years.
Reaching multiple generations for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week, Dr.
Ambrose has been teaching on the topic of how to
find relief during anxious times. The first two messages came
from the Savior's sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6,
and yesterday and today's message, focus on Philippians chapter 4
and specifically today in verse 8. Now
Speaker 2 (00:42):
here's
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Doctor Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Let's keep talking because Paul is in verse.
8, finally brothers.
Whatever's true.
Whatever's honorable.
Whatever is just.
Whatever's pure.
Whatever's lovely.
(01:07):
Whatever's commendable.
If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy
of praise, think about these things.
I'm gonna read that again.
And fill in a little.
Kind of contrast that. So let's keep that passage up there.
(01:27):
Finally, brothers, whatever's true.
Versus a lie.
Whatever is honorable, that word means sacred.
Versus dishonorable.
Whatever is just, that word literally means innocent versus abusive.
(01:51):
Whatever is pure.
versus polluted.
Whatever is lovely, that means agreeable.
Has to do with our language versus divisive, mm.
Whatever's commendable, utterly virtuous in speaking versus crass.
(02:17):
If anything is excellent, if anything is worthy of praise,
think about these things. Think about these things as a
command in the tense of the verb, but it's an
ongoing command. Continue to think about these things. Continue to
meditate on these things. Continue to focus on these things.
(02:37):
He is giving the secret.
The secret
To prevent anxiety, it's proactive.
Paul is highlighting the truth. You are what you think.
Garbage in the opposite of these garbage out.
Good in
(02:59):
Good
Anxiety is is a product of what you expose yourself,
here's the key, and your thinking patterns too.
That's what anxiety is.
It's thoughts.
(03:21):
So
If my thoughts can cause me harm.
Then
It's important I monitor my thoughts.
So I don't create harm.
If my thoughts can cause me good, it's important that
I pay attention to my thoughts because it can be good.
(03:42):
You are what you think.
So #1 this morning or #7 in the list, how
to find relief during anxious times, monitor your mental input.
Last week we talked about trying to find the good
in a situation. You'll be less likely to do that
(04:02):
if you're constantly exposing yourself to negative input.
It'll be hard to do that.
We joke about the word negative nanny.
That happens over time based on input.
(04:22):
Proverbs 4:20 talks about how this even goes beyond.
Our mental health. My son, pay attention to what I say.
Listen to my words. Do not let them out of
your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are
life to those who find them and health to a
man's whole body.
(04:45):
I was reading a Harvard survey.
75 to 98% of all mental, physical, and behavioral illnesses
comes from your thought life.
That's amazing.
This means that 2 to 25%
(05:06):
Is your environment or genetics.
Research shows that your thought life impacts your genes.
And can actually change your DNA.
Wild
(05:28):
I did a little reading on that this week, and
all I can tell you is the more I've read,
the more jaw-dropping it was.
How God made us.
And our brains.
And what's involved in our brains.
Just the idea that your thoughts are chemicals.
(05:49):
It is wild.
We don't think, we think thoughts are air, idea. We
don't think they're liquid.
But you know, you've heard about some of these.
They call them neurotransmitters.
These thoughts, these liquids, dopamine, you've heard of that, right?
(06:11):
It's a classic one. Everybody talks about dopamine. That's the,
that's the feel good. You've heard of oxytocin.
Those are the thoughts of trust.
And bonding
That happened very early in a child's life.
You've heard of serotonin.
(06:31):
That has to do with your mood and your memory.
And you've probably heard of norepinephrine.
That is the flight or fight.
Chemical thought, anxiety, if you will.
So a healthy life.
(06:52):
is a healthy brain chemistry.
But when the brain chemistry gets off whack based on thinking,
Cause remember thinking.
triggers the chemical.
It's kind of like, think about a bar and you
got all these tap poles, right? And so if you
have an anxious thought,
(07:17):
Anxious chemistry goes into your brain. If you have a
feel good thought, dopamine goes into your brain. And when
these things are out of balance, when there's too much
dopamine or it's falsely achieved through drugs, through things that will,
then it's, it's on all the time, and this creates
(07:37):
an addiction.
That you need that again. You think you need that again,
but your body doesn't, you know, your body makes all
these chemicals.
The key is balance.
It's wild. And so the more
That chemical is released, it develops a neuro pathway.
(07:59):
Which is like a groove.
Do you realize that, and I don't, I, I'm just,
this is just one week of reading on it, so
I'm not an expert. Some of you are going, well,
you got that little bit wrong. Well, OK, whatever. I,
I'm the 80% rule here, OK?
And your brain is changing daily. OK, here's a mind.
(08:20):
Do you realize that you have 100,000?
Chemical interactions going on per second in your brain.
And your brain is constantly changing. Why would it be
constantly changing based on your thought pattern, which releases the chemicals,
which creates the grooves. Get where I'm going?
(08:44):
You can change your brain.
And some of us are so conditioned our brain based
on our thought life or what we allow in, that
we got strong deep neural pathways. Can they change? Absolutely
they can change.
That's why Jesus could say, Don't be anxious. You have
a decision.
Whether it can change or not, I have a decision.
(09:09):
It expands it a little more. I know it has
for me.
When I, when I, even I thought, you know, I
was monitoring kind of my negativity or different things, and
I thought, oh, don't go there. I don't want that
pathway to get deeper. Slow down on the tap, right?
Like there's physiological things that happen as a result of it,
and God made it that way.
(09:29):
It's kind of wild. So that's why Paul can say, hey,
focus on this good stuff.
Because it'll have lasting effects on your life physiologically.
Hm, I don't know. For me,
It was crazy.
Yeah, there's a, I, I'll tell you in a second,
(09:53):
but your brain being able to change, you've heard of neuroplasticity?
Yeah, you haven't. OK. It just means it can just
think of plastic and it can be molded. OK. So
what does that look like? Well, I'll tell you what
it looked like for me. I told you, you know, what,
a month ago I was in Europe for 3 weeks.
I didn't look at my phone. I didn't turn on
(10:13):
the news. I didn't turn on the TV.
No input
For 3 weeks from media.
Unreal.
I have a SOCOM. This is right at the height
of the election.
Right, where everybody's chirping. I didn't hear anybody's voice. I
(10:33):
didn't hear Trump's, I didn't hear Kamala's, I didn't hear CNN's,
I didn't hear Fox. I didn't hear any but it
was so calming.
I felt almost like insulated.
Like they can't get me.
I'm in the middle of the Swiss Alps. Who can
get me there?
Right? It was just so regulating. And then right when
(10:54):
I hit.
Right when everything starts going dysregulation immediately.
What if what if and I really don't think we
were made for what we're experiencing.
And that's why a lot of dysregulation takes place.
Overstimulation.
(11:16):
I think that's why we struggle, and it's the number
one anxiety is the number one mental illness that is today.
Because of the input, the input, the input.
I just encourage you to take a, take a.
Social media sabbatical.
And replace it with something else. Go for a walk.
(11:39):
Go look at a tree.
We live by the ocean
Go now and sit there and watch that.
That's lovely.
That's praiseworthy.
Stop and ask yourself the question.
Is this good for me?
(12:01):
To watch this, to ingest this, to ponder this. Is
this good for me?
Or am I, am I allowing crassness? Am I allowing criticism, am,
am I allowing, uh, you know, division? Am I allowing
all these things? You know, if I allowed all these things,
why am, why am I surprised when I struggle? One
(12:23):
of the first things I ask a couple if they
come in and they're or even individuals and they're struggling,
they can't sleep at night. I, first thing, first thing
I ask, what are you watching on TV? Oh, you know,
911 shows.
Well, of course, you're concerned about the guy coming in
with a knife and da da da because you've been
ingesting that.
(12:45):
Right? We know this for our kids, don't we? We
wouldn't show them anything that's disrupting cause they might not sleep.
They got the same brain.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
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. Now let's continue with today's study in Philippians 4:8.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Monitor your mental input. If you're at the men's breakfast
last week, Oscar talked a little bit about this, but I,
I really, I really took to heart. He does a
um uh annual sabbatical where the first of the year,
for the 1st 3 weeks of the year, he turns
his phone off.
In terms of media, I mean, he's got to answer
(13:37):
texts every once in a while because he's got a job,
but other than that, no input.
Now you might think that's hard.
And if you think that's hard, that's telling.
But I'm telling you, it's not. It'll be refreshing. I
should tell you something about your brain, your chemistry, what
you're doing to protect or not protect.
(13:59):
OK, let's keep reading.
What you have learned and received and heard and seen
in me practice these things.
And the God of peace will be with you.
Another promise of peace.
Practice
Present active imperative verb. What's that mean? Keep practicing. You
(14:23):
can make it a participle, practicing, keep practicing. Not practice,
this isn't one and done.
This isn't something that you're going to get by next week.
This isn't something you're going to get down.
In a month
Arguably, how long did it take your brain to get
to the place it is from a chemical standpoint. It
(14:45):
wasn't overnight. A lot of things feed into that. Our
childhood feeds into that, trauma feeds into that. A lot
of things feed into that.
And so just by kind of doing a couple of
these things randomly isn't gonna change a whole lot. He said,
practice these things. Continue to do these things. In other words,
(15:08):
it's a life work. This is a marathon.
Not a sprint.
Cause if it's a sprint, we wouldn't have a problem.
We'd have it fixed super easy.
So this is our 2nd and final point, how to
find relief during anxious times, be patient with yourself.
(15:28):
As you practice, as you practice, as you practice.
Managing your expectations will be the key.
Cause you wonder why, probably it's not happening quicker.
And then what can happen is you can be anxious
about being anxious.
(15:51):
And it's a cycle.
And now we've created a cycle.
Where it's on chemical, chemical chem chemical dump.
And some people have gotten to the point where they
can't flip that off.
They need to medicate in order to flip it off
(16:11):
for a while.
But being patient with yourself.
The temptation is
I did like you said.
I stopped watching that bad show.
I did like you said, I took a 3 week sabbatical.
I did like you said, I, I looked for the
(16:32):
good in this situation. Awesome.
Keep practicing.
There's nothing in life that you become a pro overnight
on by practicing once.
And the more you practice, the better you'll get at it. See,
this has to do with now how we measure success.
So do we measure success by the relief we experience,
(16:54):
or do we measure success by the amount of practicing
we're doing?
I would suggest to do the other.
It's like, it's like a football player complaining he's
Not a pro yet and he rarely practices. And, and
think about pro athletes or anything that somebody's really good
(17:16):
at it. They don't just practice when there's a problem,
they practice as a way of life.
But you got to be patient with yourself.
You got to lower your expectations, Sam, this is a marathon.
One day at a time.
One step at a time.
(17:37):
But as you continue to do it over time.
And you look back, you say, I'm better today than
I was last year.
I'm more balanced today. I'm more regulated today than I
was last year. I know more about myself last year. I,
I've got disciplines in my life compared to last year.
(18:02):
I mean, the Christian life is defined this way.
Right? I mean, look at Paul's encouragement to Pastor Timothy.
Endure hardship with us, like a good soldier of Christ.
Verse 5, he says, similar, if anyone competes as an athlete,
he does not compete the uh to receive, he does
not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to
the rules. Look at this, the hardworking farmer should be
(18:24):
the first to receive a share of the crop. Look
at how Christian life is defined. A soldier, an athlete,
a farmer, that's work. That takes time, that takes effort.
That's not overnight.
I discovered there's a lot being discussed today.
In the study, it's called neuroheology.
(18:47):
Which is interesting.
And they're really seeing a connection.
Between a belief in God.
And physical health.
In fact, a great book, I would recommend you get it.
I'm about halfway through it.
It's called Switch on Your Brain by Doctor Caroline Lafe.
(19:09):
Maybe some of you have heard of her.
Again, it's not a perfect book. I, I've only read
half of it, but it's been very insightful because she's
a neuro whatever surgeon or neurologist at least that.
Makes these connections between scripture.
(19:29):
And our brains
But
She says, listen to this, cause we talked about how
important prayer is. Prayer stimulates serotonin.
Which is a mood stabilizer, and dopamine, the reward and
pleasure system chemical.
(19:50):
These are chemicals and messengers that communicate to the nerves
and affect how we view the world. The more you
engage in prayer, the longer lasting and deeper the changes
occur in the brain.
She literally said 12 minutes of prayer per day over
8 weeks can change the brain enough that the change
comes up on a scan.
(20:15):
And God made it
Mm.
So let me suggest some practices. Do you have some
practices in your life?
Those of you that struggle with this.
Cause we're gonna focus on things that are lovely pure
(20:38):
or no. OK, so what, what is the practice of that?
Well, there's a physical piece.
Somatic exercises. Have you ever heard of that? Somatic exercises?
If not, Google it.
They're just physical exercises.
That calm you down.
Physically
(21:00):
Anybody will tell you that when you exercise physically, it's
good for your body.
It's good for your brain. You go for walks.
Have some kind of
Exercise regimen. There's the physical.
Then there's also the emotional.
(21:21):
A lot of times when you're caught in anxiety and
you're dealing with hyperfocus.
Hyperintentionality.
If you can step into something that's praiseworthy or lovely
like a hobby.
Changing that hyperfocus. I know what's really popular today. And
it's super interesting to me in terms of anxiety and
(21:44):
women in our culture is painting by numbers.
Some of you are laughing because you know what, what
it does is take that hyper focus and now it
puts it into something and, and you're not mind grinding anymore,
you're moving forward. So there's a lot of different things
you could do a hobby.
(22:06):
Work
Doing something with your hands.
Then there's a spiritual piece. We talked about that prayer,
prayer time. Now you, now you know, if you want
to change your brain 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks,
check your brain. She said it's gonna be changed, adds
a whole new meaning to prayer partners up here, doesn't it?
These people aren't just going to pray with you and
(22:28):
encourage you, they're going to change your brain.
Or help you to.
Reading God's word, listening to healthy podcasts.
Input, monitoring the input, learning about yourself.
And then there's the relational piece.
(22:51):
Limiting the input of people that aren't good for you.
Protecting your own mental health.
And hanging around people that are good for you.
So there's physical, there's emotional, there's spiritual, there's relational.
(23:14):
Scripture
In science, both show
That we're wired for love.
And optimism
That was before the fall.
Then sin came in the world, negativity, and it impacts
our thinking, and we make negative choices, and the quality
(23:36):
of our thinking suffers.
But if we deal with this in a healthy way,
in a biblical way, it can actually change the architecture
of your mind.
So I encourage you.
Take these 8 steps, give them some thought.
Put them into action.
Not one and done.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And with that we bring today's study titled How to
Find Relief During Anxious Times Part 4 to a close
here on Pastor Spotlight. We hope you've enjoyed and been
blessed by Doctor Mark Ambrose's study in living righteously in
overcoming anxiety.
You know, you and your family are invited to join
Pastor Mark at Pacific Coast Church this next Sunday morning.
(24:21):
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, grow followers of Jesus,
(24:41):
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. On
Friday night, January 31st, Pacific Coast Church invites all men
to the men's summit. You're gonna be encouraged and inspired
by special guest speaker, Michael Franzese. Michael Franzes is a
(25:03):
former New York mafia boss who now travels the world
sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sign up now for
your spot at the men's Summit on.
January 31st by going to PCC's website at pacificcoastChurch.org/men, and
we invite you to join us right here at this
same time Monday for another time of growing in the
(25:23):
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ here on Pastor Spotlight,
we'll feature the teaching of another one of our wonderful
pastors from here in the Southern California area. We hope
you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight is a production of Kwave
Radio sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.