Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Adulting is a new made up word in the general vernacular to describe acting like an adult.

I just got a job or bought a house or paid a bill or bought a car so now I am adulting.

Those who are just out of high school usually into their 30’s these days may struggle with the process of leaving behind the juvenile lifestyle and becoming an adult.

The transition is often disorienting and exciting at the same time.

There can be fear and even sometimes paralyzing fear because of this time period in their lives.

Many struggle through their first few years of adulthood not knowing what to do and others just refuse to grow up.

There often isn’t a good system in place to teach our young adults how to be an adult.

Because of these factors scientists have recognized the fact that we are now seeing young people take longer to get out on their own and become adults.

Mirjana Domakonda, a scientist dealing with growth, has observed: Twenty-five is the new 18.

We call this delayed adolescence.

The bible is clear that there is a time to be a child and a time to be an adult.

Holding on to childhood when you are an adult is contrary to everything the bible teaches and at some point you just need to grow up.

Eph 4:14-15 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

Parents have been the number one factor that has driven children not to grow up.

Many of the Passages we will be looking at will be from the book of Proverbs because Proverbs is a book written by a Father to His Son to teach Him wisdom an essential part of being a man.

Notice just in the first couple chapters how many times the phrase my son is repeated.

1:8,10,15, 2:1, 3:1,11,21.

Solomon was concerned with preparing his son to be a man who fears God.

There has been a generational failing.

Boomers and Gen X complains that Millennials and Gen Z don’t know how to be responsible adults, but we must ask the question who didn’t teach whom to be adults.

Solomon is trying to impart the wisdom God has given him to another generation.

You have to teach your children to be adults.

You have to teach your children to love God, to fear God and obey God.

It has to be taught.

So tonight, I am going to give you eight practical suggestions to being an adult.

Don’t zone out on me towards the end because the very last one is the most important.

Start Life

This really is the crux of the matter: adulthood is not something to be feared and turned away from.

The opportunities to glorify God as an adult outstrip those of a child by far.

But God has created us to grow up and become an adult.

Paul speaks of this in 1 Cor 13:11 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

I know that according to Ecclesiastes 3:2 “A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;” There is a time to be born and a time to die.

What we are discussing today is everything in between.

There are two sides to this issue.

When a child is a child, let them be a child; but it is our job as parents to raise them to become adults.

That transition has to start somewhere.

This is why we have a category of children we call teenagers.

They are the ones transitioning to become an adult.

Then at some point, you have to hand off the baton and they must become adults.

They key phrase in our verse here is when I became a man.

There has to be a moment in life when we recognize this person is no longer a child, they are now a man.

This is the beginning of a new chapter in life.

The start of a new beginning.

I remember reading the Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian which is in a way a coming of age story.

In previous installments of the series, four children are drawn into Narnia by Aslan.

The two oldest Peter and Susan and two younger siblings Edmond and Lucy.

At the end of the story of Prince Caspian after the battles are all one, Aslan pulls Peter and Susan aside and tells them some sad news.

They would not be returning to Narnia because they were too old.

They needed to live in their own world and carve out their own path.

For everyone of us, there is a day the magic of childhood has to die because we are becoming adults.

We must begin life.

Need real adults involved in your lives

But just because you are now an adult does not mean that you do not need your parents or older people in your lives.

Young people like to believe they have all the answers, but logic would tell us that we don’t.

Wisdom is gained by experiences and lets face it: younger people just haven’t lived long enough to gain all those experiences.

The bible gives us a perfect example of how older people and younger people should relate in the church.

Titus 2:1-6 “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.”

First of all Paul puts the emphasis on the older people being the type of people God has called them to be: serious, moderate, strong in faith, love and patience, holy, truth tellers.

Prov 16:31 “The hoary head is a crown of glory, If it be found in the way of righteousness.”

There is intended to be a natural kind of wisdom that comes with age, but lets face it, in today’s society wisdom is not inherently coming with age.

In America, more and more people are living outside of marriage and surprisingly it isn’t the young people who started doing this more and more.

The largest increase in living together outside of marriage is in those over 55.

So the older people need to focus on being the kind of people the younger can look up to.

The second thing this passage teaches us about the relationship of older people to younger people is that older people should be involved in teaching or mentoring the younger people.

We need the input of the older generation to keep us from making the same mistakes they did.

The way we act sometimes is kind of like runners in a relay race.

Why would we go back to the starting line just because we didn’t like the way the previous runner ran his section of the race?

Keep running the race, take what you can from the previous generations knowledge and learn from their mistakes.

But you can’t do that if you won’t listen.

Work hard

Here is the main thing that needs to be said about this: Get a job.

Gen 2:15 “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

God created us to work not play video games in the basement our whole life.

Notice that work is not a result of the fall.

The hardship of work is a result of the fall.

God’s will is for adults to be working.

Eccl 2:24 “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.

This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.”

In fact, enjoying the fruits of our labor is a gift from God. Have you ever built something with you hands men and just reveled in the thought: I made that.

Not only should we be working, but we should be working hard.

Prov 13:4 “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”

The sluggard is a lazy person.

It calls to mind images of a slug in English.

Have you ever worked with someone who is so slow because they just don’t want to be there?

That is a sluggard.

They don’t want to do the work, so they don’t.

Or maybe they just play around with it.

This verse teaches that the sluggard wants a lot of things but because he won’t put the work in, he has nothing.

There are a lot of people who complain that life isn’t fair because they don’t have such and such or they get passed over for promotions.

They talk all day long about what they would love to have, but they will not put the work in to get it.

Having been in management most of my adult life, I have seen this over and over again.

People come in and they have some natural talent, but they expect to be promoted in the first week.

They won’t put the work in so they get upset and leave.

Stop Procrastinating

Time is precious.

We only have so many years here on earth and over 1/3 of those hours is spent sleeping.

What are you doing with the rest of the time.

Eph 5:16 “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”