Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Lighthouse are you ready for the rest of our talk about motivating our children today?

If you missed last week, it is incumbent that you go back and watch last week’s message.

I will even go so far as to say every student needs to watch that message!

Not just Mom and Dad, but everyone under this tent!

I was told by some of our parents that the children are catching Mom and Dad doing the things you are not supposed to do to motivate their children and they are reminding their parents.

Lord have mercy… I love it...

Transition

But today, I’ve got just as much advise for our children as I do our parents.

So I’m going to spread this all out today and we got something for everyone.

Motivation

Last week we began a conversation about launching our arrows into the world.

There are three basic things that are required to launch an arrow.

The first is aim, and that is cultivating a vision for the life of our children, based on discovering and developing their gifts.

The second is to pull back the string, which is to develop the internal motivation in your child to want to accomplish their dreams.

Lastly, we release the arrow, which is sending our children out into the world knowing that in spite of everything that is against them, they will hit the target of their life.

So we talked about aim last week, and we began to talk about how we can develop internal motivation in the life of our children.

We are going to continue with that today.

Last week I gave you 5 Things Not To Do, and as promised, I’m going to hit you with 6 Things You Need To Do.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Provide a Motivational Environment

The Atmosphere and Attitude of the home matters.

We concluded with this thought last week that we should never underestimate the power of a positive parent!

Imagine if your son misses the key goal of a soccer game and the parent comes back and tells them, “I knew you weren’t going to make that goal!

You should have been practicing, but instead you were playing Fort Nite.”

No, we’re not going to do that because we are going to speak life into our children!

Author’s Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson record that every graduating class from 1963 until 1983, every succeeding graduating class scored lower in achievement, motivation and discipline than the class before, and they showed an increase in destructive behaviors.

Let me simplify that for everyone here, there is a correlation between lack of motivation and increased destructive behaviors.

We read this verse last week, let’s read it again.

When you are not living that full life, the opposite of that is a life that is susceptible to destructive behaviors.

So what do we do Mom and Dad?

Know The Stage of Your Child

Children will cycle through these three stages - discovery, testing, and conclusions.

When your children are in one of these stages it is imperative that you come alongside their stage and provide the environment for that to thrive!

0-5 Discovery

5-10 Testing

10-12 Conclusions!

Middle School/ Junior High Discovery

High School Testing

College Conclusions!

Many parents struggle with the testing stage because we don’t want our kids to test.

We would rather they listen to the conclusions that we reached through OUR TESTING.

Mom and Dad, let’s not forget that you were young once and you tested as well.

We would rather they learn from our conclusions, but they are wired to test for themselves.

The better thing to do is to shape what they test.

Be smart about what they test.

look for serving experiences for your kids so they can test their faith.

get them on a missions trip

if you are able to, expose them to the history of our country and ask them hard questions

Mom and Dad, you are your child’s primary teacher.

2. Expose Your Children to Significant Experiences

Our kids are over exposed to information.

They have the world at their finger tips through the advancement of technology.

What it has done is create this facade that they are better prepared for life.

I’d argue that the limitations previous generations faced better prepared for life because their childhood was an internship for life.

If people wanted to see the other side of the world, they saved their money and worked hard to make that experience happen.

Now, you can jump on Google Earth and see the Great Wall of China without actually going.

So Mom and Dad, it’s going to be very hard to completely limit your children, and I’m not advocating for that, but now we must be intentional about what we are exposing our children to.

Kids need a high sensory environment!

They learn better outside of a classroom, and better outside of their bedroom.

Jesus didn’t teach in the temple as much as he taught through being outside and doing ministry among others.

Luke 5:4–5 (NIV)

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.

But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

What happens next?

They caught so many fish that they needed help from other nearby boats to bring it all in.

What do you think that experience did for their faith?

The Bible says that from that day forward, Peter stopped fishing and followed Jesus full time.

We need experiences that are significant for both the cognitive, emotional, and spiritual development of our children.

Joanna and I have worked very hard to provide a great home for our kids, and we don’t want them to go through what we went through.

Joanna while in High School needed to take public transportation in order to get to school.

Not the school bus, but the trolley, in order to get to school.

So naturally, that’s an experience we don’t want for our kids.

One year I decided to take my kids down to Comic Con and they had recently finished the Rapid Transit Lanes that is a 20 minute bus ride from South Bay to Downtown.

I took my kids on a bus ride, and that was their favorite memory of the year.

Not the nice vacation.

Not staying in our time share.

Not the plane ride to Hawaii, but the bus ride to Comic Con.

Why?

The experience was significant.

It exposed them to environments that the life we’ve provided for them had not afforded them.

3. Point Them to the Future

One of the things Jesus was great at was taking pain, hurt, and struggle, and using it to point a person towards their future.

There is a passage of scripture so perfectly shows us how we do this.

A woman was caught in an act of cheating on her husband.

The religious leaders of that time tried to trap Jesus in his words so they brought her to him and asked him if they should follow the law and stone her to death.

They tried to trap Jesus in his words, but he managed to trap them in their hearts when he asked said, “let the person without sin cast the first stone.”

When that moving scene is over look at Jesus’ words.

John 8:10–11 (NIV)

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

As parents, we want to be consistently pointing them to the direction that they need to head in.

The future that God has for them/

I’ve shared this story about a Pastor who on the night before Easter got a call from the Sheriff because his son had been involved in under age drinking.

The Pastor made his way to where his son was, and there were other kids there too.