Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Reset | Anxiety & Mental Health, Part 01

Transcript

Reset | Anxiety & Mental Health, Part 01 · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading through the book of Proverbs this week, and I came across a verse that I was reminded of as a relevant verse for the topic we're going to talk about this morning.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 12, verse 25.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read it for you.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety weighs down the heart.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've got to understand that when the writers of the Old Testament are writing in their language, the Hebrew language, when they use the phrase heart, it's not what we think about in our cultural context.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not this organ that is beating and the feelings and emotions that we feel.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: When the Hebrew writers use the term heart, lev, it means the entire corpus of who you are inside.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Every part of what means to be a human that you can't see, feel, and touch, which includes your mind and your emotions and your decision making and your capacity for worship and your capacity to be in relationship with other human beings.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so when the writer says anxiety weigh down the heart, he's saying anxiety weighs down every internal part of you.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us can relate to that?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was in my 20s and I had planted a church at 25 years old.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's way too young to plant a church in the city of Eugene, Oregon, and another university town, except this is known, Davis is known as a top 10 academic city.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: University of Oregon was known as a top 10 party university.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when I came here, I was shocked.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: People were like studying all the time and so disciplined.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait, this is nothing like where I was before.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I planted a church in my mid-20s, and the church took off and grew incredibly fast.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And for about four or five years, I was under the intense weight of terrible struggle and challenge with anxiety.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I remember there would be times that I couldn't get out of bed for multiple days.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would be driving down the road and have a panic attack, anxiety attacks.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just this loop, this anxiety spiral loop that I was in that I couldn't get out of.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would feel anxiety and they would trigger worry, worry, and fearful thoughts, and that would feel more anxiety.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know how to get out of that cycle or loop.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you can relate to that?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem was, here I was, a young pastor, our church exploded in growth, and no one was talking about mental health.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I had learned about mental health in the past in a Christian context, it was always a negative comment, a negative teaching, like you're doing something wrong, you're spiritually like inept, something like is defective about your walk with God because you're experiencing a mental health condition.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, oh my goodness, something's wrong with me.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I was reading my Bible, I was praying, I was seeking Jesus, I was serving Jesus, and I was like, what is wrong with me?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea how to think about my mental health struggles as a Christian.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I had no idea how to get out of the vicious cycle of anxiety, fear, worry, anxiety, fear, worry.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to feel well again, but it felt elusive and impossible to feel well again.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question is: how do we as followers of Jesus, as Christians, think about mental health?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then what are spiritual practices that help with something like anxiety, which is the number one most prevalent mental health condition in the United States of America?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: How do we think about it?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: What are the practices that help us with anxiety?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'd like to talk about today, if you're good with that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're good with that, say amen.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, mental health is such an important subject, and anxiety in particular is the most prevalent mental health condition in the United States.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Between 19 and 20% of our population in the U.S.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: deal with an anxiety condition.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you do the math, that's about 50 to 60 million people at every moment that are struggling with anxiety in the United States.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: There was an amazing book written by Jonathan Hayde, and he is a social psychologist, and he wrote a book called The Anxious Generation.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you here heard about that book, pardon me?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Phenomenal book.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in it, he talks about the precipitous rise of anxiety in the last 15 years since 2010.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: His book came out in 2025.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And listen to the different age groups and the significant increase in anxiety in the last 15 years.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety amongst college students in his book, he wrote, has increased 134% in 15 years.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety amongst ages 18 to 25 has increased 139% in 15 years.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety amongst ages 26 through 34 has increased 103% in the last 15 years.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And anxiety amongst ages 35 through 49 has increased 52% in 15 years.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: All of those statistics show a sharp, precipitous increase in anxiety in our world.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, we don't have time to get into this.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's all sorts of reasons why that's the case culturally.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of reasons that undergird why people are struggling with anxiety in this current cultural moment.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to expose that this is a real issue, and there's so many people that are struggling.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want to add of the statistics, of the 19 to 20%, the 50 to 60 million people, that's not the entire story.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's only those that are reporting.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: The percentages are way higher than 20%.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And especially amongst the younger generations today, for all sorts of reasons, of which I don't have time to get into all the nuance and layers of the reasons by my book, it's coming out next year.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to talk about something that Romans talks about here in our text this morning, in this major shift point in the book of Romans, where it turns from a theology of the gospel to how now to live out the way of Jesus in light of the gospel.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul says in chapter 12, verse 1, therefore, he's summing up this is the transitional statement.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, he's talking about the gospel, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Every part of you should be offered to God.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Every facet of what it means to be human, your physical self, your soul, every part of you offered to God because of the gospel.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, This is your true and proper worship.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I can get into all the nuance and preach on that, but I don't have time this morning, other than to say, you offering your life to God, that is what worship is.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Worship includes singing, but that is only one facet of worship.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's our response to the gospel that is true.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Worship.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now notice verse 2 do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then you will be able to test and approve what is got what God's will is.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, as you are transformed, you're gonna begin to understand more and more what God's will is for your life.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those are just descriptives of the will of God.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's not saying there's like a, you know, there's like this one thing that is the perfect will of God for your life.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying that God's will is good, it's pleasing, and it's perfect.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Those are two different ways of looking at that text, which is important to make a distinction because a lot of people get really anxious because they think that every decision they're trying to find the perfect will of God.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what God is saying here.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: God is saying that you are following Jesus, and God's will can be described as good and pleasing and perfect as you are following Jesus.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to give you wisdom how to make wise decisions that align to the will of God, and that happens as you're transformed by God Himself.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to frame this in two ways.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, particularly.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's two things that he talks about here that are really important that were gonna lead us into a mental health conversation.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first is when he says, do not conform to the pattern of this world.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your transformation includes subtraction.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know how there's girl math?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know girl math.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: You guys heard of girl math?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I like girl math, it's pretty cool.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you go shopping, you try it on at your house, you take it home to return, and you're like, I have$200 to spend now.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's free money.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not girl math, this is Bible math.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So girl math was a cultural trend.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now Bible math is gonna start to be a cultural trend.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Transformation includes subtraction.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: What I delete from my life.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: God says there's something to subtract, there's something to delete from your life.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do not conform to the pattern of this world.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: The verb here means to form or mold after something.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: That a lot of the formation in our life, a lot of the ways we become who we are, are unintentional.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're just allowing the world and culture and cultural narratives to shape and form us, and we're not even thinking about it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're unintentionally being formed in the place and space that we're living in.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not filtering through the cultural narratives and systems and ideas that are shaping our life.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: We just kind of are being molded after those things.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever, maybe not in the city of Davis, but when I go to cities, people understand this.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever done anything in clothing design, there's what's called pattern making.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I love textiles, I love design, I'm Danish, my family's from Copenhagen, so that's just a part of our culture.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in pattern making, it's the it's the process of creating a blueprint uh for a particular garment.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so it will be a 2D blueprint, and you'll use it as a template.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, you create a pattern, you use it as a template, and that template it has the exact required specifications to sew and create the garment, to cut out the garment, to sew the garment, so on and so forth.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something that Paul says about here is like we're living in a place and space that there's just pattern making everywhere.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're allowing culture and systems and narratives to shape patterns in our life, and it's creating who we become without ever thinking about who we're becoming.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Are you guys tracking with me?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so God says, I, as a follower of Jesus, because of the gospel, I don't want you to continually be conform to the pattern of this world.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's not saying we we deny culture or we lose culture or we don't value culture, we don't live in culture.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a specific vein of culture.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: When he used the term world here.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about culture that is set up in opposition against Christ and his kingdom.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Purposely trying to deconstruct the gospel, purposely trying to deconstruct the way of Jesus, purposely trying to deconstruct everything that God wants to do in your life.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're to do Bible math with.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're to delete those things that are shaping us contrary to God's design and wisdom for our life.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says something really incredible.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Bible math.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Transformation includes deletion and subtraction, pardon me, and addition.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is addition.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us want to change by just getting rid of bad things in our life.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: From a psychological level, you can't do that.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And from a spiritual level, you can't do that.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because whenever you subtract, you have to add something in place of that old thing.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: That old pattern, that old habit, that old way of thinking, that old way of relating and relationships.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just delete the change.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to subtract something and add something into your life.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, here's something to add: be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: The term is metamorphao.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Greek verb.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: It means it means there is going to be an inward change in your life, something that is going to be transformed from the inside out.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul uses this term in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, when he says, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in the mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a continual transformation process in our life.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So God says, You're going to delete something that is forming you in negative ways, and you're going to add something that is going to form you from the inside out.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is the idea of renewal.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: God wants us to renew our mind.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And renewal refers to what takes place inside of a person where they become spiritually new and different.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an inside out process.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us were Christians and we're like, oh, you know, like I got all kinds of things in my life and I know they're not right.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But on the outside, I'm able to present the Christian life in a way that people think that I'm following Jesus.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the way God wants to change us.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to have duplicity in our life.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to just be the Christian on the outside.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to get a hold of your heart and mind and transform you from the inside out in a loving and beautiful and redemptive manner.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think of so many people in the Bible who experience this.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: This subtraction and addition in our life.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think of Peter.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: You remember Peter, the great disciple, who was always like bold and standing up to like things that Jesus would say when Jesus was like, I'm going to be crucified.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's like, No, you won't.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or Peter was like, you know, somebody is going to deny me.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter's like, never, Lord, I'll never deny you.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then Peter denied Jesus three times.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: The kids are having fun.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter denies.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your big spiritual failure.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: What happens?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: You live in the sphere, an atmosphere of shame and discouragement and failure.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you're stuck in that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to get out of that because he wants to transform you and do beautiful things in your life.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter, he's discouraged.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: He was going to be a great preacher for Jesus and he failed Jesus.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So what did he do?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: He went back to his old life.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus rises from the dead and he seeks Peter out.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he cooks Peter breakfast and he says, Peter, do you love me?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Three times he asks Peter this question.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter says, three times, Of course I love you, Lord.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know I love you, Lord.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Of course I love you, Lord.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Go feed my sheep.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't let a failure in your life so discourage you and defeat you that you don't continue your calling.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: These are things that happen in our mind where we get, we feel like we're a failure and we let shame run its course and we quit doing what God has called us to do.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus came to Peter and reminded him no, your failure, your failure does not mean you're on the sidelines to quit doing what I've called you to do.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Get back up and keep doing what I've called you to do.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think of Paul.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Remember Paul?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, you should know him if you've been a Christian for some time.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote like half the New Testament.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He planted so many of the churches that we read about in the New Testament era.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul went around arresting Christians.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: He hated the message of Jesus.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: He hated Christians vehemently.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he went around arresting Christians.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't the person that you would be as a Christian.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: You'd be like, oh yeah, he's going to be the greatest Christian in church history.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pick him to be on the preaching team.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, this would be the person you're like.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: We want to get as far away from him as possible, and he will never be on our team because he hates us.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not how God works.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: God can take the greatest persecutor of the faith and make him the greatest preacher of the faith.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that was Paul's story.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Total renewal and redemption and transformation from the inside out.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, Paul, I could go on and on and on, but then I'll go on and on and on forever.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't want that on a Sunday morning.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to transform and renew our life from the inside out.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And in particular, notice the sphere that he talks about renewing us in this passage.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: But be metamorphous from when we get our term metamorphosis.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: The mind seems to be a center of change and transformation.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can't see it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I can't see what you're thinking right now.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can't see what I'm thinking right now.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it has a major influence over your spiritual and mental health.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we like to separate these things.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: We like to make a distinction and compartmentalize, like I've got my spiritual health and I got my mental health, and I got my relational health and I got my vocational health.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't bifurcate and separate and compartmentalize all the aspects of being human because all of them affect one another.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: We are not a compartmentalized being as human beings creating the image and likeness of God.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: We are an integrated being creating the image and likeness of God.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: We like to differentiate all the different aspects, and God is like, no, your mind will influence your relationships, your mind will influence your worship, your mind will influence your emotions, and so on and so forth.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you some important truths about renewing your mind.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe think of this as like a path, a pathway to begin to renew your mind in Christ.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for this?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've got 10 things, so let's cook as they say.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, number one, a renewed mind, a renewed mind is a process.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: A process.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the theological weight and nuance that Paul is saying here.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 12, too, but be transformed.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a uh a summary verb, this is a continual habitual reality that is undergirding what Paul is writing.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is a process.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's an internal process, it's happening from the inside out.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: God heals and transforms us from the inside out, but it's also a lifelong process.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's never going to be a day where you're like, my mind is perfect and flawless and worship in harmony with Jesus.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be seasons of life where you're struggling in your mind, and seasons of life where your mind is at peace and calm and you feel a harmony with God.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say this because some of us we think the Christian life is like these miraculous, instantaneous, total overnight, in the moment change.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the Christian life is gradual, lifelong, in process, intentional change with God.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is something that God wants us to understand.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: That the battles and the seasons of struggle, they're not like in one moment they're going to be gone and erased from you.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's a continual process of bringing your thoughts to God.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Douglas Moo, the great uh theologian and commentator of Romans, his commentary is like this thick.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've read it twice.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's incredible.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Christians are to adjust their way of thinking about everything in accordance with the newness of their life in the spirit.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: This reprogramming of the mind, I really love that phrase, reprogramming of the mind does not take place overnight, but is a lifelong process by which our way of thinking is to resemble more and more the way God wants us to think.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: A renewed mind is a process.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, a renewed mind is rooted in God's word.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these verses.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: All over the Bible, there's examples of this.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119, verse 9.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: How could a young person stay on the path of purity?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: By living according to your word.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119, 11, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 4, 4, 4, 7, and 4.10.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was being tempted by the devil, every time he resisted a temptation, he did it by quoting and living the word of God.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: If we're going to be assaulted in our mind, if we're going to have these challenges in our mind, we have to spend the rest of our life in the scriptures.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because the scriptures have the power and potency to change and reprogram how we think.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we believe too much in the preacher and not the message.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're just male men and male women delivering God's meal to you.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't change your life.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Christian leaders overestimate their ability to influence people.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot influence your life from the inside out.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Only God can.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to be in places and spaces where the scripture is in our heart and in front of our face and in our mind over and over and over again.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because what you feed your mind will influence how your mind thinks.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, you know, for example, if you're on Netflix eight hours a day for a week, and you're watching all the dating shows on Netflix eight hours a day for a week, you're going to be lost in your mind in romantic love and forget everything else that's important in life.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying, maybe not eight hours a day.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying don't watch your favorite show on Netflix, but I'm just saying whatever we feed our mind will influence every part of our life.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Feed your mind the word and words of God.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to be faithful to that across all 12 of our Bayside churches.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be starting another one in 2027.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have 13, which is amazing.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be faithful to feed your mind the words of God.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not us who change you.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not Ray, it's not Mark Clark, it's not Wesley Town, it's not Jason Cain.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's God's word.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're simply just serving you the words of God.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, a renewed mind brings, a renewed mind brings anxieties to God.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says the same thing in different words.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Bring your anxieties to God.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: What happens with anxieties we get trapped inside our own head.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we live inside of ourselves and we struggle inside of ourselves, but we don't offer our anxieties to a source that can actually help us with our anxiety.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And absolutely, people and humans and experts and therapists can help us with anxieties, but so can God.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Incredible move of God.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a revival.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: This church was amazing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was 30 minutes outside of every city that surrounded it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: People would drive a half an hour to an hour to get to the church by the thousands.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you know a church alive is worth the drive.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I heard, when I heard this taught, I heard, you're doing something wrong if you're anxious as a Christian.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was a young pastor, preaching and teaching, and our church was exploding in growth, and I was struggling, I thought, man, I'm in sin.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's something wrong with me.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's something spiritually disconnected.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was equating my anxiety with my spiritual health, and that is not how this scripture should be read.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just deconstruct that right now.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is not condemnation, this is invitation.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is not God condemning you for your anxiety, this is God inviting you to talk to him about your anxiety.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because listen, he doesn't just say do not be anxious about anything.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but in every situation, when you're feeling anxiety, pray, petition, thanksgiving, present your request to God.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, this is God as a loving God inviting us to talk about our internal emotions and struggles with Him.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you if you look at Philippians chapter 4, verse 5, it says, God is near.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is saying, I want you to pray to me about all of your anxious thoughts because I am near and I care about what you're feeling.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is such an important way to frame this verse and also to deconstruct old thinking about this verse.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he talks about prayer and communication because one of the most important things we can do when we're struggling with our mental health is to talk about it, not to remain in this internal loop where it just stays inside of us.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he uses this phrase uh I want you to look at Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you should turn there right now if you're not already there.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, with thanksgiving or gratitude.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is brilliant because modern neuroscience has learned what God was already saying thousands of years ago.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Gratitude eases anxiety in the brain.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Even like practicing gratitude, maybe like writing a few things down you're thankful for each day, that can lower anxiety in people.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: It helps to calm the brain's fear center and strengthens the parts that handle positive feelings and emotional balance.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is brilliant.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: God knows the human brain because he created it.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, pray about it and then practice gratitude, and then notice what he says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: The peace of God will guard your anxious hearts.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: When your mind is racing with anxiety and concerns, we have God's peace to protect our minds.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's not to say that this is a silver bullet and you'll never feel anxiety again, but this is to say that there's a supernatural presence of God that is available to help you have peace in the midst of stress.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is when we're stressed and we're anxious, we are so focused on that that we lose sight of God and his peace.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And God's saying, draw near to me, and I will give you peace in the midst of your stress.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And notice here that we are not passive in the process.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think this is just like it's just gonna happen supernaturally.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do anything.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, God is saying you have to do some things to help you with your anxiety.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have to pray, you have to petition, you have to practice gratitude, you have to present your request to God.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: There is an intentional, active process for us to engage in.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: God is giving us intentional spiritual practices to engage when anxiety arises.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: You guys see that?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So don't think that the Christian life is just some like boom, like it's just gonna change overnight.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have to do some things to produce the healing and change inside of us.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, I'm never gonna get done with this.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, a renewed mind does not believe every thought.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And notice what he says, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's an important principle in just the mind that I want you to understand.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot control every thought that comes into your mind.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your brain is hardwired to remember thoughts from the past.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll go be going along, worshiping the Lord, walking with Jesus, and some really negative or shame-driven thought will come to your mind, like something you did in your past, a bad decision you made.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're not controlling that entry thought.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's what call what are called ants, automatic negative thoughts, particularly when people are struggling with anxiety or depression, they have ants, automatic negative thoughts.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something you're choosing.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: You don't choose every thought that comes into your mind, but you have control over what you do with every thought that comes into your mind.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: You choose what to do with the thoughts that come into your mind.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the encouragement here is you don't have to believe every thought that comes into your mind.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can take it captive, you don't have to believe it.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been something in your past, that's not who you are anymore.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: It might be something that Satan wants to remind you of, he's a liar.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that God is feeding your mind.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have to learn that in life in anxiety, you can't believe every thought that comes in your mind.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes anxiety is creating scenarios that aren't even real.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're potentialities, they're what-if scenarios.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, you know, you're good things are going well, and you sit down, you do your homework, and you have a thought like, I'm gonna get in a car wreck tomorrow.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then you entertain that thought and you think, oh my goodness, you start living in fear, you worry, you don't go to sleep, and tomorrow comes and you don't get in a car wreck.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: There are negative thoughts that come into your mind that are not truth, that you do not have to believe.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to learn the wisdom of how to steward your mind because a lot of things come in and out of our mind that we don't quite know what to do with.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, I don't know if I should finish or I should do the second half next week.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, we got ten.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Finish?
• 36:33
  unknown: Next week.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's finish number five.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number five.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Should we do a part two next week?
• 36:38
  unknown: Yes.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I preach here so I can make those decisions.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Number five.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, let's just do number five, and then next week we'll do the final five.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: A renewed mind does not entertain every thought.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: These coordinate, these connect, these come together.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, which includes your mind, for everything you do flows from it.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if a bad memory comes into your mind, if a shame memory, if a negative thought comes into your head, here's what God is saying: don't entertain it.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't believe it, and don't entertain it.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that psychology can teach you, but the Bible has already taught us, and again, not not everything in psychology and theology are in harmony.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: But not everything in psychology and theology are at odds.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: We live in extremes sometimes in how we frame things.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that helps us when we're dealing with anxiety and we're dealing with negative thought patterns is labeling those thought patterns.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of thinking a thought, maybe it's an automatic negative thought, maybe it's something you're reminded of of in your past because it's built into the hardwired into your memory bank, instead of doing that and then cultivating and entertaining those thoughts, you simply label it from for what it is.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't reality, this isn't true, this is not what God says about me.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: So on and so forth.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't feed it, it won't develop inside of you.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the minute you start feeding that thought, the minute you label it for something that it isn't, or you mislabel it, and you start to entertain it and you start to feed it, then it grows and it gets into your emotional makeup.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: It gets into the decisions you're gonna make.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's a really important thing as a follower of Jesus to say, every thought I think does not need to be fed or entertained inside of me.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can't control every thought, so don't believe every thought, and you shouldn't entertain every thought because every thought that comes into your mind is not emotionally or mentally or spiritually healthy for you.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: So a renewed mind does not entertain every thought.