Believe for It, page 4
• What are some ways the local church has influenced you or strengthened your faith?
• What evidence does Scripture offer that the church is to be a vital part of the Christian life?
1. “Just How Religious Are Americans?,” The Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture, accessed June 20, 2022, https://relationshipsinamerica.com/religion/just-how-religious-are-americans.
2. N. Racine, B. A. McArthur, J. E. Cooke, R. Eirich, J. Zhu, and S. Madigan. “Global Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents During COVID-19: A Meta-analysis.” JAMA Pediatrics 175, no. 11 (2021): 1142– 1150, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.2482.
CHAPTER
• three •
YOU’VE ALREADY GOT IT
When I was seventeen years old, my brother BeBe and I got on an airplane and flew to the location of our first full-time singing gig on a Christian television program. I still can’t believe my parents allowed us—especially me— to go. My father wouldn’t allow me to stay around the corner, so allowing me to move to another city seemed unlikely. I had just graduated from high school and was so inexperienced. I had never even worn makeup! But my parents were confident in how they had raised us and knew their children would look out for one another. It turns out, their faith in BeBe and me was well placed.
Ever since my first solo when I was eight, I had taken the stage many times. I continued singing in the church and in youth choirs, where I sometimes directed. And the Winans family put on yearly Mother’s Day and Christmas concerts to bless the community. As many times as I had stepped onto that stage, I still felt a bit uncomfortable. I loved to fade into the background, and performing forced me to be front and center. By that time, four of my older brothers—Ronald, Marvin, Carvin, and Michael—had formed The Testimonial Singers (who later changed their name to The Winans). They performed in Detroit and the surrounding areas until they were discovered by California gospel legend Andraé Crouch; then their careers exploded. At home in Detroit, I watched with pride as my older brothers’ music took them to new heights. In 1981, they signed their first recording contract and began touring the nation singing gospel music. God had answered my great-grandfather’s prophecy that the Winans children would spread God’s Word through singing!
When BeBe and I began our journey of singing together, I hardly felt qualified. What did a seventeen-year-old girl have to say about faith and walking with Jesus? And who would listen? But as I performed in the singing group on the show, people did listen. To my amazement, our audiences not only seemed to be moved by the songs I sang, but they also identified with my message of hope in Christ.
I still had shy tendencies, but the more I ministered from the stage, the more I recognized God was using me and I did have something to say. While part of me wanted to stay safely tucked away in Detroit, allowing my older siblings to fulfill the destiny my great-grandfather had prayed over us, another side of me had been awakened. I wanted to give God all of me so that He could take the gift that He had given me as far as He wanted to.
WHAT’S IN YOUR HOUSE?
There’s a fascinating story in 2 Kings 4 about a single mother in crisis. Her deceased husband had been part of a company of prophets that hung out with the prophet Elisha. The woman came to Elisha in dire straits. “Your servant my husband is dead,” she said, “and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” Reading the story, you can feel the woman’s hopelessness. In fact, she appeals to the great man of God because she needs rescue from the seemingly inevitable tragedy ahead.
In a God-helps-those-who-help-themselves moment, the prophet replies, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” Have you ever felt this challenge from the Lord? “What do you have in your house? What resources have I already provided?” I’m sure Elisha could have just asked God to change the widow’s circumstances without her involvement, but he turned the situation on her and asked what she had in her house to solve the dilemma.
The woman responded as I think many of us would. “Your servant has nothing there at all,” but that wasn’t quite true. Because as she’s picturing her home with its everyday necessities, she continues, “Except a small jar of olive oil.” It’s no wonder the little she had didn’t seem like a viable solution to the woman. How could a small jar of olive oil possibly solve her problems?
As we consider the task of passing on faith to the next generation in a moment in time when so much of the culture around us goes against the Bible and God’s ways, we can easily feel that we have nothing to offer. When the news headlines shout of the evil in our world, we cry, “Lord, have mercy” and “Jesus come quickly,” realizing that He is the only hope for this dark world. Putting our faith in Him is essential, but we should also ask, “What do I have in my house? What are the gifts God has already provided so that I can accomplish this vital, God-given mission of telling the generations about who God is and what He has done?”
Once the widow had revealed that she had a small jar of olive oil, the prophet sprang into action, helping her come up with a plan. He told her to go to all her neighbors and borrow as many jars and containers as she could gather. “Don’t ask for just a few,” he exhorted. She was to be bold in asking for as many vessels as she possibly could. Next, he instructed her to take all the containers into her house and close the door. She would then pour the oil from her small jar into all the vessels she had collected.
As she began to pour, the oil from her small jar filled each container her sons had brought her until none remained. I like to think about what might have happened if she and her sons had collected even more jars! How many times do we underestimate what God can and will do with our meager offerings? I’m sure as the woman poured the oil and filled jar after jar, her confidence grew and her doubts shrank. As she engaged in the miracle God was doing, she got to witness firsthand how God could turn something very small into something great.
When she had filled the final jar, she asked her son to bring her another. “There is not a jar left,” he replied. And when he said those words, the oil stopped flowing. I think it’s telling that the widow had become unaware of how many jars were left. As she continued to pour the oil, her faith grew that it would keep flowing no matter how many jars she filled. The work was not cumbersome because she was experiencing a small taste of God’s unlimited resources.
She returned to Elisha and told him what had happened. He said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.” God’s provision for the woman was not only for her present circumstances. He had provided her enough to live on, presumably until her sons were old enough to provide for the family.
I love that the woman included her sons in the process. She gave them the opportunity to participate and feel invested. Along with their mother, I imagine they were also expectant to see how God would use their obedience. Imagine how their faith must have exploded as they watched God do a miracle for them.
DIFFERENT AGE, SAME PROBLEMS
I have talked to many people who do not feel up to the task of planting faith in the next generation. “Is it even possible?” they ask. Looking at the issue through a strictly human lens, the task does seem daunting. The cultural landscape is far from hospitable for such an assignment. Our world seems to be in a state of confusion and chaos and getting worse every day. When I think about what I dealt with in high school versus what today’s youth encounters, the difference is staggering.
My parents’ greatest concerns were that one of us would be pulled into a “bad crowd” and away from Christ. They did all they could to strengthen us in a holy lifestyle so that our heads and hearts wouldn’t be turned by the ways of the world. But they didn’t have to contend with cell phones and the Internet and the rampant debauchery being broadcasted on TV and social media outlets. My goodness, sometimes I wonder what my dear Grandmother Howze would have to say about such things!
Looking at the degradation surrounding us, it’s easy to feel hopeless, like the widow who came to Elisha. She wanted to provide for her sons and rescue them from physical slavery, while many of us want to nourish the next generation with God’s truth and rescue them from the sins that cause a person to lose their soul. But we find in Scripture many examples of God’s people passing on faith in the context of hostile environments. Here are just a few examples:
• Jonah reluctantly proclaimed God’s judgment to the morally bankrupt and perverse Assyrian city of Nineveh, and the whole city repented and was saved.
• Daniel, a Jew exiled in Babylon, continued to follow God in a pagan culture, which ultimately affected the people around him and inspired kings to praise the Hebrew God.
• The apostle Paul spread the gospel and built up the church in Rome, even as the depraved, violent leader Nero Claudius Caesar was propagating and carrying out the brutal persecution of Christians.
We may be tempted to feel as if our world has special, insurmountable problems. But Scripture reveals that God’s people have always been following Him and doing His work in inhospitable places and times. Every age has its own set of philosophies, values, and social norms that influence the culture. Ephesians 2:1–2 puts it like this: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
Like a flowing river, the course of this world can be difficult to resist. As believers, we are called to swim upstream, not go with the flow of the world. Apart from the power of Christ in us, this is a wearying proposition. The world does not make it easy to live a life of faith. In fact, we can’t expect the world to support Christ’s agenda. But when we consider what the Lord did through Jonah, Daniel, and Paul, it’s easy to see that the inhospitable environment had little to do with the end result.
At first glance, we may look at our circumstances, our resources, our stations in life, or our personalities, and say, like the widow in 2 Kings, “There is nothing there at all!” We may feel we possess nothing that will help us carry out this mission of passing on faith to the next generation. But God sees things differently. He asks, “What’s in your house? What have I already provided for you to carry out the calling?”
The truth is, God has made us for this. Over and over in Scripture, He instructs us to teach our children His precepts and model how to live a life of faith. And the one who calls you is faithful. Second Peter 1:3 gives us this promise: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The message of that verse is clear: God’s power gives us everything we need to live out His calling for our lives.
THREE LIES THE ENEMY TELLS
Even though Scripture is clear that we have “everything we need” to accomplish God’s good plans for us, the enemy carries on an active campaign to convince us otherwise. When I was seventeen and God was calling me into music ministry, you can be sure the enemy was whispering the lies in my ear that I wasn’t up to such a task. I wish I could say, many years later, that I’m immune to the deceptions of the enemy, but combatting his lies with God’s truth will be a lifelong endeavor.
Speaking of Satan in John 8:44, Jesus says, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” If the enemy had a resume, lying would be included under “special skills.” He’s not just good at it, it is his native language, his go-to form of communication. Think about the serpent in the garden, who told Eve and her husband, Adam, that their disobedience would not lead to death but would, in fact, cause them to be like God. The lie worked like a charm on our first ancestors, and they will work on us if we are not constantly opposing the lies with truth.
Here are three lies the enemy tells us about passing on faith.
The task is too difficult. As we’ve already discussed, when we look at the world around us, the goal of establishing the next generation in a strong, biblical faith can seem impossible. When we look at our world and see how ungodliness and unbelief is running rampant, we may feel like real change is unattainable. As the numbers of young people leaving the faith and leaving the church grow, we can begin to focus on the problem and forget about our powerful God.
Like Peter, who believed he could walk on water, saw the waves, and began to sink, our sense of purpose and calling can be muted as we see the waves of depression, anxiety, anger, addiction, violence, sexual brokenness, and so much more washing over our young people. We can feel helpless to stop the onslaught of false ideology that engulfs them and push back the darkness.
I have observed parents pulling back from teaching and guiding their teenagers just when they should be pressing in. We the church must be careful not to fail to invest in young adults just because it doesn’t get the return or buy-in that ministry to other groups garners. I’ve seen grandparents accept passive roles in the lives of their grandchildren because they don’t believe their influence makes a difference. Viewing the struggles the average child, teenager, or young adult faces today, it’s easy to feel as if the task is too big or it’s too late for God to redeem the next generation.
But that is a lie. Psalm 100:5 says, “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” When we’re tempted to give up on the next generation and declare the task of reaching them too difficult, we ignore the fact that God is faithful to every generation. When the waves of doubt pull us away from our calling, we must turn our eyes to Jesus, recognizing that it is His power through us that accomplishes things the world says are impossible.
You’re not qualified. One of the biggest lies of the enemy is that we are not qualified to do God’s work. When Alvin and I founded Nashville Life Church, we did not feel qualified. In fact, for more than a decade, it was hard for us to believe God was calling us to pastor a church. While I had finally settled into my role as a singer and minister of the gospel in that arena, becoming a pastor for a church was a whole other matter. The idea of teaching for an extended period and mentoring impressionable young men and women was sobering. I felt the weight of that responsibility (as I should have).
One of the biggest lies of the enemy is that we are not qualified to do God’s work.
Satan is an accuser, and he loves to remind us of our deficits. Have you ever said, “Oh, I could never do that”? I have. And yet Scripture tells us all things are possible with God. There was a time when I didn’t think I could stand on a stage alone for five minutes, let alone teach for an hour! But I read in the Bible that I am an approved worker who can correctly handle God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15).
Another way the enemy lies to us is by rubbing our noses in our failures. We may feel disqualified from ministering to the next generation because of past sin. Let me just say, if sin disqualified us from doing the work of God, no one would be doing it. The Bible is full of imperfect people and parents. Rebekah favored her younger son, Jacob, and plotted with him to deceive his father, Isaac. Jacob, repeating his mother’s sin, favored his son Joseph, creating division among his children. And King David, described as a man after God’s own heart, was an absentee, passive father who raised rebellious sons who perpetuated evil. Each of these imperfect parents had faith in God and still played a role in passing down faith to the next generation, reminding us that God works through flawed people.
Maybe as you’re reading these words, you feel shame over your failures, either as a parent or in another area of life. Let me remind you that shame does not come from God. Jesus paid the price to take away our shame when He died on Calvary. Now we can stand blameless before a holy and righteous God. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” If you are a true believer in Jesus, you are not disqualified. In fact, it’s just the opposite. God has given you everything you need to pass on faith to the next generation.
Somebody else can do it better. Similar to the last lie, this one convinces you that someone else is more qualified than you—the youth pastor, the Sunday school teacher, the gifted speaker. Something I have noticed is that many parents seek to outsource the spiritual training and development of their children and teenagers. They bring their young people to Sunday school, church, and youth group in the hopes that they will believe in Jesus and grow in their faith.
There’s nothing wrong with taking your kids to church (You already know how I feel about that). These programs can be wonderful reinforcers of the spiritual training happening in the home. But the belief that a pastor or youth leader is more qualified to pass on faith to your child than you, the parent, is a lie. Research confirms that parents, and especially moms, are the biggest influence on their children’s spiritual journey and decision to follow Jesus.3 Children who grow up in homes with one or two believing parents are exponentially more likely to claim to have faith in Christ as adults. This is encouraging news! God truly has given parents the most defining role in their children’s spiritual development.
THREE GIFTS WE ALREADY POSSESS
Now that we have identified the lies that may be keeping us from getting on board with reaching the next generation for Christ, it’s time to consider what’s “in our house.” What has God already provided to help us carry out this calling? James 1:17 encourages us with these words: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” The Lord gives us perfect gifts as we walk in faith and live out the things to which He’s called us. While it would be easy to come up with a very long list, here are three gifts each of us possess.
Salvation. Every person who has professed faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross receives God’s most precious gift. When we admit our sin and trust in Jesus, who died and rose again, as our Savior and Lord, God immediately bestows on us the gift of salvation and eternal life through Him. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Because of this gift we are transferred from death to life and brought into God’s glorious kingdom. From that moment on, we can tell others the Good News of the gospel. We don’t have to have a theology degree or be a pastor. The minute we decide to repent of our sin and to follow Jesus, we are qualified to tell others about the transformation we have experienced.
