Chasing Bigfoot | Part 5 · Rewind

Chasing Bigfoot | Part 5 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · May 26, 2019

Big Idea

A parent's primary job is to be their child's leader before their cheerleader, because a child who is only cheered for and never led will eventually have nothing to cheer about.

Good parenting isn't ultimately about being your child's biggest fan — it's about leading them well, the way God leads us. Hebrews 12 shows that God disciplines those He loves, marking boundaries, correcting wrong paths, and coaching us toward growth, and parents are called to mirror that same pattern with their own kids.

Key points

1
1Elevating any good thing, including being your child's cheerleader, to the main thing warps it into an idol.
Pastor Bill frames this as the final message in the Chasing Bigfoot parenting series, where each week a well-meaning idea is shown to become harmful when raised above its proper place. Being a cheerleader for your kids isn't wrong, but treating it as a parent's primary role is a myth that sets kids up for failure.
2
2Hebrews 12 describes God's own parenting style: He disciplines those He loves.
Pastor Bill reads through Hebrews 12:1-13, noting that it follows the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11 and is written to a persecuted community needing endurance. He points out the passage explicitly compares God's correction to a father disciplining his children, and that being disciplined is proof of being loved and truly His child, not evidence of rejection.
3
3Parents play the role of the groundskeeper, marking out clear boundary lines.
Using a sports analogy, Pastor Bill explains that before a game a groundskeeper marks what's in bounds and out of bounds. Parents must clearly define what their family stands for and where the lines are, rather than making rules up as they go, which only confuses and frustrates kids.
4
4Parents must also be the referee, calling fouls and enforcing correction out of love, not anger.
This is the role Pastor Bill spends the most time on, describing two failed extremes: the abusive, controlling parent who disciplines out of vengeance, and the checked-out parent who yells but never follows through, leaving kids in chaos. He shares his own line, 'Are we at war?' as an example of calm, strategic correction rather than spontaneous emotional reaction.
5
5Culture has replaced repentance with a counterfeit called tolerance, making it harder to parent biblically.
Pastor Bill traces how tolerance once meant respectful disagreement but now means all truths must be equally valid or you're labeled intolerant. He argues this shift teaches people, including Christians, to find identity in anything but Christ, using the example of a four-year-old being told to decide their own gender while the same voices object to letting kids choose their own food.
6
6The final and highest calling is to be a coach, using discipline as a teachable moment rather than punishment.
Pastor Bill contrasts his cheerleading mother, who made him feel good but didn't make him better, with his coaching father, whose correction, like making him run laps for a costly mental mistake in a game, actually made him a better athlete. He argues boundaries and discipline don't restrict freedom, they create it, while lack of discipline leads to slavery.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to choose to be a leader rather than just a cheerleader, even though it takes courage.

Define your family's boundaries clearly
Like a groundskeeper marking the field, decide and communicate what your home stands for and where the lines are, instead of making up rules as you go.
Correct strategically, not spontaneously
When your kids cross a line, respond with a calm, planned approach rather than an emotional outburst; find your own version of Pastor Bill's 'Are we at war?' line to defuse tension while still following through.
Find your identity, and help your kids find theirs, in Christ alone
Resist the cultural pull to root identity in gender, sexuality, career, or any other label, and teach your children the same, trusting Scripture over the culture's counterfeit tolerance.
Use discipline as a teachable, coaching moment
Treat correction as training for the game of life, not punishment, so that your kids grow stronger rather than merely feeling good in the moment.
Take a courageous financial step in the building campaign
Consider filling out a pledge card toward the $7,000,000 goal so more of the building project can move forward for youth and children's ministry, sacrificing as an example to your kids of what the family values.

Take it into your week

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

There is a race being run, and it started before you ever became a parent. Hebrews 12 opens with a sweeping image — a great cloud of witnesses, a course laid out, and a call to strip off everything that slows you down. The writer is not talking about running a perfect race. He is talking about running with purpose. Parenting is one of the most demanding legs of that race. It asks more of you than almost anything else — more patience, more courage, more consistency than feels humanly possible. And the temptation, especially when you love your kids deeply, is to trade purpose for comfort. To encourage instead of correct. To cheer instead of lead. But the sermon's opening challenge is worth sitting with today: aimless encouragement without direction does not prepare a child for life. A race without a course is just wandering. Your child needs to see you running with intention — eyes fixed, steps deliberate, willing to endure the hard stretch because you know what the finish line means. You do not have to run perfectly. But you do have to run honestly. The first step is simply asking: am I leading this race, or just cheering from the sidelines of my own child's life?

For reflection

In what area of your child's life are you most tempted to cheer rather than lead — and what might honest, purposeful leadership look like there?

Pray

Pray for the courage to lead with intention, even when encouraging feels easier.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about a sport or skill you learned that required real discipline to get good at — this message from Hebrews 12 makes the case that the same dynamic is at the heart of what loving parental leadership looks like.

Discussion questions

1
In Hebrews 12, the writer compares God's relationship with His children to a father who disciplines the sons he loves. What does that comparison suggest about what love actually requires of a parent?
2
The message draws a distinction between cheerleading and leading — affirming a child versus guiding and correcting them. Where do you think that line gets blurry for parents, and why?
3
The sermon describes the groundskeeper role as marking clear boundary lines, especially from Scripture. What makes that kind of clarity both difficult and important for a family?
4
The referee role involves calling out wrong behavior strategically rather than reacting emotionally in the moment. What's the difference between those two approaches, and how might that difference land differently on a child?
5
The sermon points out that the goal of discipline isn't a perfectly obedient child — it's a child whose heart has been turned toward Jesus. How does keeping that goal in view change how we might think about a disciplinary moment?
6
The message makes the case that discipline creates freedom, while the absence of discipline creates a kind of slavery. How might that reframe the way we as a community talk about correction — whether in families, friendships, or the church?

Pray together

Asking God for the courage to lead with love — the kind of purposeful, patient, corrective love He shows His own children

Sign in to save this message.

Topics

Biblical Discipline Freedom Through Discipline Parental Leadership Raising Children Setting Boundaries

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →