David Setran | Wisdom for Emerging Adults (4/13/2016)

Summary

Dr. David Setran argues that emerging adulthood is less a clearly scripted stage of life than an open-ended period full of choices. Earlier versions of The Game of Life reflected a predictable sequence—college, career, marriage, home, and children—whereas its newer version emphasizes many possible paths. In that uncertainty, Setran asks what will guide people’s choices and whether the Christian beliefs they learn will shape the way they actually live.

His central claim is that people live according to what they love. Knowing a Christian worldview does not automatically keep someone faithful: desires and imagination can be drawn toward competing ideas of the good life. The important question is therefore not only, “What am I learning to know or do?” but also, “What am I learning to love?”

Formation Happens Now, Not Someday

Setran challenges the belief that people can postpone spiritual growth until life becomes settled. In his experience, each new life stage brings another reason to wait—finishing college, finding work, raising children, or caring for parents. A settled future may never arrive.

Meanwhile, present habits are shaping future desires. Setran compares this to an Etch A Sketch: drawings may seem erasable, but repeated movements leave grooves that make certain patterns easier to repeat. Likewise, repeated choices form habits and inclinations. People should not assume they can simply “flip a switch” later and become the person they hope to be.

Drawing on Galatians 6, he describes this as sowing and reaping. The effects of choices may not be immediately visible, but that does not mean they are absent. Sinful patterns can gradually weaken judgment and self-control, dull sensitivity, and make repetition more likely. Spiritual practices may also take time to bear visible fruit, but their gradual development matters.

Practical Guidance for Emerging Adults

Setran’s advice is to begin living the life one hopes to have now, rather than treating it as a future project:

• Turn future hopes into present practices. If you hope to become a person of prayer, begin developing a regular practice now. If you hope to serve others or share your faith, look for ways to do so in your current roles and relationships.
• Ask, “Where is my body taking my heart?” Consider how daily routines, media, devices, websites, and other repeated activities are shaping your desires.
• Recognize that cultural messages invite people to love particular versions of “the good life.” Advertisements often sell an appealing story or imagined happiness, not merely a product.
• Replace false loves with a greater love. Setran argues that willpower alone is not the best answer to competing desires; Christian worship and spiritual practices help reorient the heart toward Christ.
• Make room for Scripture, prayer, worship, silence, and remembrance. These practices may not produce immediate feelings of change, but Setran urges patience and trust in gradual spiritual formation.
• Commit to a local church. Regular communal worship, the Word and sacraments, pastoral care, and church membership can help guard against competing influences.
• Learn from older Christians. People often learn how to live by observing others. Relationships with mature believers offer visible examples of faithfulness developed over time.
• Encourage one another to act today. Setran uses Hebrews 3:13 to emphasize the need for mutual encouragement before sin’s deceitfulness hardens the heart.

Discipleship Means Giving Things Up for What Is Greater

Setran contrasts cultural self-determination—doing whatever one wants—with the Christian call to offer oneself as a living sacrifice. Following Christ can involve costs to comfort, reputation, relationships, career ambitions, or sexual gratification. Whether someone is willing to bear those costs depends on what they believe is most valuable.

He illustrates this with Jesus’ parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13. The merchant gives up everything to obtain the pearl because he recognizes its greater worth. Setran asks listeners to consider what their own “felt hat”—a treasured desire or ambition they are reluctant to surrender—might be.

The sermon concludes by contrasting those who decide the cost of following Jesus is too high with Peter’s response in John 6: “Lord, where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Setran’s final challenge is to keep Christ’s worth in view so that adult life is shaped not by the endless question of what one wants to do, but by the conviction that no alternative offers greater life.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Dr. David Setran — The speaker, who delivers the address and shares personal anecdotes.
• Jamie Smith — Cited on people being oriented by their loves and desires.
• Tim Keller — Cited for the image of souls as empty arms seeking something to embrace.
• Augustine — Quoted as saying that love is born of earnest consideration of what is loved. The name is unclear in the auto-generated subtitles.
• David Kinnaman — Cited on emerging adults often lacking adult friends outside their parents.
• The Bible — Especially Galatians 6, Hebrews 3:13, Matthew 13, Romans 12 (the living-sacrifice idea), and John 6. Paul and Peter are also referenced.
• Cultural examples discussed by Setran — The Game of Life (1960 and 2007 versions), Microsoft’s “Where do you want to go today?” campaign, and advertisements associated with Axe, financial firms, and Apple.
• Children’s storybook authors — Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen, whose retelling of the pearl parable Setran recounts.