Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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One of the comic strips I have faithfully read for most of my life is the strip “Hi and Lois”.
Hi (which is short for Hiram) and Lois Flagston, are typical middle-class American suburbanites.
Lois is a realtor.
They have four children: Chip, the teenager, twins Dot and Ditto, and Trixie who is a toddler.
* A "Hi and Lois" cartoon shows Hi waving his arms in frustration and asking his son, "Chip!
Why are you watching this JUNK!"
Without looking up from TV, Chip replies, "This is better junk than all the other junk."
In the kitchen Hi tells his wife, Lois, "The best we can hope for is that our kids can tell the good junk from the bad junk!"
In today's society, I think that's the prayer of many a parent who have a teenager living in the home.
!
I. THE CHALLENGES OF ADOLESCENCE
#. throughout most of human history, adolescence (the time between childhood and adulthood) was only a few years in length
#. in the modern era, adolescence has become an extended period of time and that posses a series of challenges for our young people
#. let me share the five primary challenges facing our young people ...
!! A. THE CHALLENGE OF PUBERTY
#. here is one of the greatest challenges confronting today's teenager
#. their bodies are rapidly changing
#. their hormones, which have been relatively quiet for eleven or twelve years, have suddenly said, "It's party time!"
#. it is a time of rapid physical and emotional change that is natural and wonderful
#. it can also be confusing, frustrating, bewildering and sometimes embarrassing
#. who can forget that morning you woke up and found that first big "zit" right in the middle of your forehead that made you feel like a Cyclopes?
#. puberty can dramatically intensify emotions
#. adolescents suddenly develop the capacity to feel sadder, more euphoric, more anxious, and angrier, and also to experience these more intense affective states for longer periods of time
#. the problem, of course, is that during adolescence, emotional intensity is enhanced but the ability to control those emotions has not yet developed
* ILLUS.
It’s like starting a car, but not yet knowing how to drive!
#. puberty which arrives too early can be embarrassing
* ILLUS.
By the time I was in the sixth grade I was already six feet tall.
I stuck out from my class mates like a sore thumb.
I was shy and embarrassed because I felt abnormal and out of place.
It didn't help when some of my friends nicknamed me after a popular mid-1960s cartoon show character—Milton the Monster.
#. puberty which arrives too late can seem catastrophic
#. studies have found that late-arrival of puberty for boys is especially difficult
#. when all their friends are starting to shave and they’re not, it’s frustrating
#. when all their friends are beginning to talk like Sylvester Stallone, and they’re still sounding like a Vienna Choir Boy it’s disconcerting
#. the Church gives young people little help with the problems they are facing at this critical period because the words puberty, sex, and sexuality make us uneasy
#. society doesn't help the situation
#. children are reaching puberty at younger and younger ages
#. at the same time Americans are getting married later in life
#.
recent statistics show that the average age of men at their first marriage is 27, for women the average age is 23
#. this means that many youth spend a decade or more with sexually mature bodies and reproductively-activated brains prior to taking on adult status in society
#. no wonder you (and your child) weren't ready for this!
#. while the Church is telling teenagers to /"wait"/ and /"just say no"/ society is telling them /"Go ahead, everybody else is doing it"/ and your body is going /“Uh-huh, that’s right.
If it feels good, it must be right!”/
#. adolescents going through puberty into sexual maturity is definitely a challenge for today's youth
!! B. THE CHALLENGE OF A SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY
#. adolescence is a time when teenagers are discovering who they are and what they believe
#. which means they challenge almost everything!
#.
Eric Erikson, a development psychologist of the early 1950's wrote a book entitled Childhood and Society
#. he says that persons go through eight psycho/social tasks which contribute to the formation of our personalities
#. each one of these stages has a negative and a positive side to it
#.
Erikson writes that the primary psycho/social task teenagers are going through is identity verses role confusion
#. teenagers are attempting to discover who he or she is and what their role in life is going to be
#.
virtually everything they have every learned or been taught is questioned and evaluated
#. when we are children we have no such identity crisis
* ILLUS.
When Linda's nephew Mark was two and three years old you could ask him the question, "Who are you?"
The reply was always, "I'm mommy’s little boy."
#.
Mark knew exactly who he was
#. his identity and role was wrapped up in his relationship to mother and father
#. the answer to the question, "Who are you?"
gets tougher as you get older
#. that question is of utmost importance to teenagers
#. they are not just "mommy’s little boy" or "daddy’s little girl” any longer
#. they are learning to be individuals who make choices about themselves, about others, about their goals and dreams and about the world they live in
#. adolescents discovering who they are can be a real challenge
!! C. THE CHALLENGE OF MATURITY AND THE STRAIN BETWEEN GENERATIONS
#. teenagers are maturing into adulthood yet they still carry the vestiges of childhood
#. most teenagers are convinced that their parents were born adults and don't have any idea what they are experiencing
#. it comes out in those fateful words, "Mom, you just don't understand!"
#. there is that natural tendency for teenagers to be chomping at the bit and to be tugging on the apron strings
#. they want increasing freedom, but also the security of rules
#. parents often perceive this growth toward maturity as rebelliousness
#. the reason parents are reluctant to let go of the reigns or untie the apron strings is because parents often see the childishness in their teenagers
#. teenagers see this reluctancy by parents to let go as their parent's attempt to overtly control and dominate their lives
#. adolescents struggling toward maturity can be a real challenge
!! D. THE CHALLENGE OF CONFORMITY
#. the pressure to be like the other kids and do what your friends are doing is an enormous pressure on today's teenager
#. this can create conflicting feelings of loyalty especially within Christian teenagers
#. on the one hand, you've grown up being taught right from wrong based on the Scriptures
#. on the other hand, some of the things you're asked or expected to do so that you'll "fit in" is anything but Christian
#. and who doesn't want to fit in?
#. who doesn't want to be accepted?
* ILLUS.
I was raised by my parents to be an individual.
We we encouraged to be who we were and not what everyone else thought we should be.
When everyone else was wearing bell-bottomed jeans and macrame belts, I wore straight-legged jeans and skinny leather belts.
When everyone else was wearing tie-died tea shirts, I was wearing button-down oxfords.
When everyone else was wearing platform shoes with two-inch heals, I was wearing penny-loafers.
When everyone else was letting their hair grow long, I stuck with my crewcut.
And I was happy with myself, and really didn’t care that I wasn’t ‘in’ or ‘cool’.
I managed to maintain that individuality until I was about 17.
I finally gave in and bought the cloths and the shoes that everyone else was wearing.
The only problem was that I still had a "crew cut!" (Which was very "un-cool" in those days).
I’ll never forget what my best friend in High School (Charles Manson) told me.
He said, “You fit in better, when you weren’t trying to fit in!”
#. that was a huge eye-opener for me—it taught me to be me regardless of what everyone else around me was doing
#. the desire to be like everyone else instead of being you is a real challenge
!! E. THE CHALLENGE OF DEALING WITH FEELINGS
#. James Dobson, a Christian Psychologist and Family Counselor writes that the typical fifteen year old has three basic feelings
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