Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduce myself - Pastor Isaiah, worked with teens going on 6 years

Pastor Brian asked me to address the twin topics of challenges and opportunities facing teens

Game-plan is to layout several challenges this week, and then a few final challenges next week along with opportunities Lakewood’s teens face

Goal: to provide practical ways you, as a member of our church family, can support, encourage, and disciple teens.

Challenge: No 2018 edition of Proverbs that specifically addresses the challenges and opportunities facing teens.

This type of study doesn’t lend itself to exegesis of one passage and then grappling with what the text says.

This teaching time will be more topical in nature.

However, I would like to begin with a passage, and ask a question for you to answer.

What entertainment was available when you were a teen (music, tv shows, movies, “on the town” opportunities)?

- Old Testament Teens

In timeless terms, what were the challenges these teens faced?

Incredible pressure to commit Idolatry (external)

Cultural pressure to conform (external)

Authoritarian pressure to conform (external)

Reputations on the line (internal/external)

Compromise after making a point

Cultural destruction for standing up for beliefs (external)

Technology leveraged against them (instruments creating a scene of worship) (external)

Jealous peers and wicked acquaintances (external)

Seeing Compromise as permissible after making a point (internal)

Fear (internal)

Su

Identity issues (internal) - Who am I?

Point: You and I often find ourselves in type positions, and so do Lakewood’s teens.

Do not view the teens as fundamentally different than yourself or your friends in your age group.

They may listen to different music, they may play different games and have different toys, they may wear different styles than you would wear, but ultimately, their challenges are challenges every human being faces.

Questions to ask yourself as we walk through this:

What challenges do I identify with?

What challenges do I have a hard time understanding?

Is my lack of understanding do to my lack of grace and love towards younger believers, or is my lack of understanding simply tied into my experiences?

Or something else entirely?

Qualifications

Don’t ever assume a teen at Lakewood is a believer, regardless of externals.

As you engage them in conversation, engage them with the gospel.

Poke and prod as much as you are comfortable, prompting them to test themselves to see if they are in the faith.

No thoughtful parent will ever take offense at another adult loving their younger brother or sister in Christ enough to stir them up concerning their eternal security and their present object of trust.

This discussion approaches challenges from the assumption that a teen is a believer.

Internal Challenges Lakewood’s Teens Face

Internal Challenge #1: Identity - “Who Am I?”

One of the fundamental questions of humanity that you need to wrestle with every day.

Related to the essence of who man is.

Believing teens are quick to self-identify as: smart students, average students, below-average students, soccer players, basketball players,

volley-ball players, board-game players, Christian-school kids, homeschool-kids, public-school kids, fill-in-the-blank-with-an-instrument players, nerds, geeks, readers, authors, popular, unpopular, lonely, depressed, dating, single, someone’s girlfriend/boyfriend… the list goes on and on.

These categories don’t define who they are.

Even their last name doesn’t define who they are.

But who are believing teens, really?

Believing teens are God’simage-bearers ().

Believing teens are “elect exiles” (); in Al Mohler’s words, believing teens are part of that graced group of people who have been “chosen to an exilic existence”.

Purpose - “Why am I here?”

Solution: Believing teens need to embrace their God-given identity as elect exiles, sons and daughters of the Almighty God, co-heirs with the coming King of a future kingdom.

Practical application for Lakewood’s family:

Don’t expect teens to find their own identity in Christ without role-models who know who they are in Christ.

Daily secure your identity in Christ.

You are not primarily a mom, a wife, a father, a husband, a grandparent, a single-parent, a divorcee, a business-owner, a home-maker, an entrepreneur, a creative, an artist, an intellectual, retired, jobless, homeowner, renter, employer, employee, supervisor, manager, or boss.

If you are a believer, you are an elect-exile, made in God’s image, and being remade into the image of your King and co-heir, Jesus Christ.

Be transparent in conversation with teens.

Tell them point-blank what you sought your identity in as a teen, and how, apart from God in Christ, it failed to satisfy you.

Pray that Lakewood’s teens, and you and I, would find our identity in Christ and in Christ alone.

Internal Challenge #2: Purpose - “Why am I here?”

Another universal challenge, no matter if you are a teen or not.

With all of the extra-curricular activities teens are involved in; with all of the societal pressure for our teens to succeed and surpass all others in whatever arena of life they enter into, it is no wonder our teens have a hard time keeping their ultimate purpose in view.

Their ultimate purpose is not to be the star of the soccer team, to ace every test, to get a scholarship for sports for college, to make a lot of money, to be successful, to be known, to be popular, to be respected, to be a leader, to be liked, to have a lot of friends on FB or likes on Instagram.

A believing teen is here for one purpose:

Solution: Believing teens need to constantly evaluate and reorient their priorities 1) so that they know the excellencies of the God whom they are to proclaim to others and 2) so that they are able to proclaim Him to others.

Teens need to prioritize their time in the Word to know God.

This is part of enjoying eternal life now ().

Practical application for Lakewood’s family:

Evaluate your own schedule and activities.

Are you modeling a life that reflects a proper understanding of priorities?

If not, what needs to change?

If so, is there someone near by you can help disciple into a healthier, more biblical perspective on a believer’s purpose in life?

In conversation, don’t keep the focus on things that don’t really matter.

“Did you win?” is at times an appropriate question, but ultimately, it is irrelevant.

“How’s your testimony with your teammates?

Do they know you are a believer?

What conversations about spiritual things have you had with them?” “What is God teaching you about himself this week?”

“What struggles have you had?” “Who can I pray for with you, that God would give you an opportunity to share the gospel with?” “What else can I pray for you for?”

If you are a parent of a teen, evaluate your teen’s schedule and activities and be willing to make hard choices.

Is their enough margin for your teen to be developing their walk with God in solitude and quiet?

How are you intentionally setting them up for success in that which really matters?

Pray that God would keep Lakewood’s teens, and you and I, focused on our ultimate purpose.

Internal Challenge #3: Sin Nature - “What's wrong with me?”

Call this inherited sin, call this original sin, it boils down to the same thing: Adam’s sin plunged the human race and all individuals into sin.

We are born sinful, and sin has corrupted our entire nature.

We are in bondage to this sin nature, and apart from God’s grace, can only do those actions that are in conformity to our sin nature.

This doesn’t mean we are as sinful as we could be, but it does mean that we are thoroughly sinful.

While a believing teen is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, has his or her forgiveness cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and has been given new life in Christ, the sin nature still exists.

It won’t be eradicated this side of eternity, but it will be progressively changed this side of eternity.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers.

qOnly do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love rserve one another.

14 For sthe whole law is fulfilled in one word: t“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you ubite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, vwalk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify wthe desires of the flesh.

17 For xthe desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, yto keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Solution: Teens need walk in the grace of God found in the person of Jesus Christ to “be who they are” in Christ, to overcome their sin propensities and desires.

Practical application for Lakewood’s family:

Expect that teens will sin, and don’t be shocked when they do.

Don’t be surprised when an unsaved teen acts like an unsaved teen.

Don’t be surprised when a saved teen is attracted to sin, even thought it is a sin you would never find yourself attracted to.