Series: Childlike Heart
Message: Childlike Heart
Preacher: Jessyka Albert
Daily Walk: Jessyka Albert

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 119:9-16.

Read: Matthew 18:1-6 (NIV). As you read the New International Version, note 1–3 insights.

Reflect: This summer, during the ONEL1FE Internship here at Boulder Church, I was walking down our kids wing with two of my interns who both just happen to be starting their senior year. As we walked past the phases posters up on the wall, they began to make comments:

“Middle schoolers are motivated by acceptance . . . that totally makes sense when I was in those grades!”
“What are high schoolers motivated by?”
“FREEDOM! Yeah, that’s one hundred percent accurate!”

You heard it here: Research tested, high schooler confirmed! These four years are dripping with anticipation to jump into the “real world” and have full say over their lives:
High school students are motivated by freedom. If you try to motivate a 17-year-old through excessive limits, it may work against their basic motive and incite frustration and rebellion. But when you guide them with love, you collaborate on boundaries and give high school students opportunities to prove they can be trusted. Then you influence them to make responsible decisions and expand their opportunities. (130)

It’s not just teens who crave and are motivated by freedom. This is one of the easiest to relate to from the phases of kids. It’s something that sounds so wonderful, but as the years pass by, we replace freedom with reality. Because nothing in life is really free, right? 

Enter Jesus. 

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Kids believe in freedom. Our seniors believe in freedom. We might counteract that saying, “Well, just wait until they see what life is really like.” 

But Jesus doesn’t just call us to an average life. He calls us to a life of full freedom. If He has set us free, we are free indeed. 

Our reality shouldn’t define our freedom. Our Freedom in Jesus needs to define our reality.

If we believe that kids our made in the image of God, we believe our God is a God of freedom.

Recalibrate: ​​​What is holding you back from feeling ultimate freedom?

Respond: Pray for reminders that Jesus is calling you to pursue an above average life.

Research: Read “3 Ways to Help High Schooler’s Relate to God” on justaphase.com