Real Adventure vs Counterfiet Adventure
Notes
Transcript
Meet Gen Z
Partner
Private
They are more prone to share vanishing messages like snapchat
They will have an instagram profile but may have several finsta (fake instagram profiles)
Anxious
In my day, you may have encountered a bully at school only. Now bullies are present all the time. They can be on social media or in text. It is constant and they don’t get a break.
Tim Elmore in his book Generation Z Unfiltered, published in 2019, writes
The caring adults I talk with everywhere I travel agree that the number one challenge teens face today is anxiety.
We are hearing the terms panic attacks, depression, stressed out, obsessions, and anxiety attacks a lot more common than when I grew up.
Between 2008 and 2018, the levels of anxiety in adolescents skyrocketed, measurably.
What happened that so many more teens, in such a short time, would feel depressed, attempt suicide and commit suicide? wrote San Diego State University professor Jean Twenge, who authored a study on this in the Washington Post column.
“After scouring several large surveys for clues, I found that all of the possibilities traced back to a major change in teens lives: the sudden ascendance of the smartphone.”
“Teens who spend 5 or more hours online a day were 71 percent more likely than those who spent 1 hour a day to have at least one suicide risk factor,” Twenge’s research found.
Restless
Millions are restless at night, on a screen instead of sleeping, and restless during the day, always changing in response to circumstances.
One study said that students attention spans are eight seconds. This is down from 12 seconds from students being measured in 2000. This means that students are distracted after just 8 seconds unless their brains find what they are focusing on to be intriguing. Scrolling tic toc videos or producing videos you have 8 seconds to engage or they will scroll on.
11% of students have been diagnosed with ADHD.
Tech Savvy
They spend the equivalent of a full-time job (nine hours a day) on their devices, not including school assignments.
According to a 2018 study by the National Institutes of Health, kids who use smartphones, tablets, and video games more than seven hours a day are more likely to experience premature thinning of the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain that processes thought and action
Nurtured
Parents have become preoccupied with safety, self-esteem, and success of Generation Z Kids. This has evolved from helicopter parents to now parents are snowplows. That is parents do the work to clear the path for their children.
As parents strive to make sure kids are successful, kids are responding with stress of not wanting to let them down which can be positive but it can also create a trap of people pleasing
Entrepreneurial
They want to bypass climbing the corporate ladder and create their own companies. They have watched others online build their brands and make it without a 9-5 job.
Redemptive
They are more inclusive. They want everyone to feel respected, no matter who they are.
They believe they can change the world because the world they’ve grown up in is already changing.
Our SCENE Today
S - Speed (Slow = bad)
C - Convenience (hard = bad)
E - Entertainment (boring = bad)
N - Nurture (risk = bad)
E - Entitlement (labor = bad)
ADVENTURE, ad-venʹt̮ū̇r:
“To risk,” “to dare,” referring always to an undertaking attended with some peril
“Christian adventure is a Bible-based strategy that leaders use to design and guide controlled risk experiences where people are encouraged to say “yes” to God.” -God of Adventure Bruce Dunning
Scripture is full of Adventure.
God is the creator of Adventure and it originates with Him.
Adventure is meant to point us to the Lord
I want to look at two types of Adventure this morning
Counterfeit Adventure
Real Adventure
Two weeks ago we watched the video with Simon Sinek and he described the dopamine hits our brains get from technology
When we get likes and notifications it gives us a dopamine hit. We start to get addicted to this feeling. So the phone starts to feed this feeling.
Dopamine makes us feel good.
We don’t go outside and experience adventure anymore. We sit on our phones and scroll through other peoples adventures. Longing to be like them. We get hits of dopamine from watching others experience life.
Kids don’t experience adventure they watch others on youtube do it. This makes them feel good watching others.
We call this counterfeit adventure.
Let me give you some examples of counterfeit adventure in scripture.
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.
3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
John Milton’s poem written in 1667 he writes of Eve bending down and seeing her reflection in the water and in that moment she becomes fixated on herself.
Another example Exodus 32.
Counterfeit Adventure
Social Media, Media, Video games, Shopping sites, porn.
These all fill you with dopamine without the risk.
What is something you use to replace adventure?
I did some quick research on what happens to dopamine in your body when you drink Alcohol
Alcohol causes the brain’s reward system to release the motivational chemical dopamine. But over time, chronic drinking actually depletes the amount of dopamine in your brain, causing you to crave more alcohol and laying the groundwork for an alcohol addiction. Drugrehab.com
9 Natural ways to boost dopamine levels
Eat tyrosine-rich foods
almonds, avocados, bananas, beets, cabbage, green tea, lima beans, oregano, peanuts, rosemary, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, turmeric and watermelon.
Exercising
Spending more time outdoors
Meditating (prayer)
Listening to Music (worship)
Petting an animal
sleeping
Taking a cold shower
Massage
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”
2 Then Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4 He took the gold from their hands, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, “Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; then he made an announcement: “There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.”
6 Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to play.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.
8 They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ”
9 The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
10 Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
Real Adventure
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses:
2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you must camp in front of Baal-zephon, facing it by the sea.
3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.
4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.” So the Israelites did this.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said: “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”
6 So he got his chariot ready and took his troops with him;
7 he took 600 of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in each one.
8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out triumphantly.
9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army—chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help.
11 They said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13 But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.
14 The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.”
“Safe?” said Mer. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” -C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Paul
21 I say this to our shame: We have been weak. But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am talking foolishly—I also dare:
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman—I’m a better one: with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, near death many times.
24 Five times I received 39 lashes from Jews.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods by the Romans. Once I was stoned by my enemies. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea.
Picture Read 26
26 On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea, and dangers among false brothers;
27 labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing.
28 Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches.
Prove
Problems
Start with Real world problems
Relationship
Everyone Learns better from someone they believe likes them
(Care, trust, connect, bridge)
Ownership
Move from Commander to Consultant
Visuals
Experiences
Create environments from which we can teach
What are the areas of your life that are counterfeit?
What areas do you need to say yes to Jesus?