How to Pass On Our Faith - Learning to Walk by Faith, Pt .6

ANNOUNCER 2 In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, how to pass on our faith. People are very, very careful and oftentimes go to a great deal of expense in order to be sure that they leave their wealth or the things that they treasure and value to those, their children, their family, their friends. Great expense oftentimes. And often the Christian will fall into the same kind of trap. And that is to make very sure that their wealth, their material possessions that they pass on to their children, their grandchildren or their friends, all of it's well taken care of, no question whatsoever. The fallacy of all of that is this, that the most valuable thing you and I own as believers, the most valuable things we possess are not those things that we can touch with our hands. It is not wealth and stocks and bonds and property and all the rest. The most valuable thing we have to pass on is our faith. Now someone says, well, but now wait a minute, you can't pass on your faith. That is a personal relationship that you have with God. And how can you pass on your faith? Well, you can pass it on. That's what I want to talk about in this message. And that is how to pass on our faith, our children, our grandchildren, or even those about us. And so I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy. And the first chapter of 2 Timothy, Paul is writing to young Timothy who is pastoring a church, going through some difficulty and hardship. And certainly, he knew how to pass his faith on to young Timothy. And I want you to turn, if you will, to that passage. And let's begin reading in verse 3 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul said to him, I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. Don't you know that was a comforting thing for young Timothy to realize that the apostle

Paul was praying for him night and day? He says, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, going through a difficult time, so that I may be filled with joy. And then he says to him, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. And for this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but of power and of love and of discipline. Paul is writing from a prison, encouraging young Timothy, attempting to strengthen him in his faith. And it's interesting what he says to him. He says, now remember, he says, I know the source of your faith. He says, first of all, your grandmother Lois, she had strong faith. Then your mother Eunice, she had strong faith. And now he says, I am sure it is in you as well. Where do you think Timothy got that kind of faith? Well, it was the influence of his grandmother. She passed it down to her daughter, and she passed it down to her son. And then, of course, likewise, the Apostle Paul certainly loved Timothy, and he said that he was his son in the ministry. What do you think he was doing with his son in the ministry? Passing down to him, transferring to him, enabling him to be able to understand the truths that God had taught him. He was passing on his faith to young Timothy, knowing that probably before long he was going to lose his life. Now, here's the big question. The question is this, do you have a faith that is worth passing on? Do you have a faith that will make a difference in someone else's life? Well, you say, well, what would that faith be like?

It's like this. That is, a faith worth passing on is a faith that is based on the truthfulness of the Word of God, God's eternal Word. Your faith is based on that. Secondly, it is a confident conviction that the God of the Bible is who he says he is, and he will do everything he says he will do. It is a faith that you have tested and tried in the circumstances of your life and have allowed God to prove himself faithful to you. It is a faith, not that you've heard about or simply read about, but your faith is a faith that you've tested and tried, and God has proven to be faithful over and over and over again. It is a faith that has this characteristic for sure. It is a faith that you not only can live by, but it is a faith that you are willing to die by. That is, on those last hours of your life, last moments of your life, and oftentimes people know that they're going, the issue is, is the faith that I've lived by. by a faith that I can die by. Can I face the living God at the end of this life and know without any doubt there is a certainty in my life. I am eternally secure in the living God whose son died at Calvary in order that my sins may be forgiven and I can live in oneness with him. Do you and I have that kind of faith? A faith worth living by that it works. A faith worth dying by that I can trust my whole future into what God promises in his word. Well, if you are a believer, you certainly have faith in God or you could not be a believer. But do you have a faith that's worth living by, worth dying by?

You say, well, yes, I do. Then how do we pass this on? We certainly cannot believe for our children. We can't believe for our friends or our family. They have to believe for themselves. Then what do you mean passing on your faith? I simply mean this, passing on to our children, our grandchildren, to those friends around us, passing on to them in several ways, our faith. That is why we believe what we believe and what we believe. That is how we relate to God. So how would we do that? Well, I want to encourage you to jot down several things. And if you're a father, since you're the head of the home, head of the family, you certainly ought to jot these down. And mom, you should jot them down also because I know that there are many parents, many families that have single parents. There's the father, no mother. There's the mother and no father. And so I want to encourage you because you see, if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, you should have something far more valuable to pass on to your children, your grandchildren, than simply material things, which oftentimes are spent rather quickly and foolishly. Well, you say, well, how do we pass this on? Well, here's the first way. You pass it on in this way. By sharing, listen, by sharing with your children

or your grandchildren those principles that you have learned in life. For example, the four basic principles that have governed my life all of these years, my grandfather passed on to me in one single week. Take him the time. Now he could have said, you know, I'm too busy to talk to this high school kid. I don't have time for that. But for one solid week, he sat and listened and talked and shared. What was he doing? He was sharing with me the things that God had done in his life. He was passing on to me without even realizing principles by which he had lived, things that he had learned in the difficulties and the hardships of life. When I walked away on my way home, I recognized God had done something in my own life. That is, my own faith has suddenly catapulted. It became strong immediately because I began to think, well, God, if you will do that with my grandfather, what will you do in my own life? And so as I looked back over the years, he gave me four basic principles that absolutely governed my life all of these years. What did he do? He passed on to me. Listen, he didn't get out the Bible

and try to prove anything to me. He didn't give me a whole bunch of scriptures. He passed on, listen, he passed on critical situations and circumstances in his life in which God was faithful to come through every single solitary time written in my mind, etched in my soul, burned in my heart. God loves my granddad enough to do it for him. Will he do it for me? Yes, he will. Somehow I knew he would. He passed on to me his faith. Now, this is why I said to you, write down the points of the message. Listen, keep a diary. That is record what God is doing in your life because you have something to pass on to your children and your grandchildren that would be far more valuable than any kind of material gain, no matter what it is. Now, kids, they want lots of money or this and that and the other and so forth. And oftentimes that's the worst thing you can pass on to them. But your faith, that is, these are the principles that God has taught me. What are you doing? You're passing it on to them. And if you don't think they'll be interested when you say, well, let me tell you about a difficult time I was going through.

Here was a great need in my life. I had no answer. I didn't know what to do. I got on my face before God. I cried out to God and let me show you how God answered this. I'm here to tell you, God will etch that into their minds because they're gonna find situations and circumstances and difficulties and hardships and troubles and trials and temptations and tribulations. You know what they need? They don't need more money. They don't need a bigger car and a bigger house and more clothes. They need, listen, they need an unwavering, unshakable faith that has been tested and tried by a father or their mother. Tested and tried. And they can say, here's what I know God will do in your life. Here's what he's done in my life. That's the kind of faith this generation of children need to hear. And they're hearing almost none of it whatsoever. Why? Because the parents aren't practicing the principles. And when they're not practicing them, they don't understand them and they don't know them. And therefore they're not passing them on. And I think about what's happening

to this generation of ours. All of these children who are coming along, who in the. Not being taught the principles. They're not taught them in school. They don't go to Sunday school. They don't go to Bible school Oftentimes parents don't care They're so busy about the present day making money and getting ahead and doing this and saying their kids Well, I'm doing this for you. No, you're not I'm just doing this for you No, you're not you're doing it because you want to because you like it because it helps you but what about the expense of your? Children, what about their faith? What are you? What are you pouring into the life of that child that will establish them and strengthen them as they go out into a wicked vile Sensual world that will do its best to destroy their faith at all costs What are you doing to build into them something money can't buy and death cannot take away The second way we pass on our faith is this We pass it on by the lifestyle that we live and so we either pass on doubt Frustration fear unbelief or we pass on our faith. So how do we do that? It's just this simple every day day after day week after week month after month year after year What are we doing? We are making decisions in front of our families in front of our children or in front of other people our friends or neighbors Whoever we are making decisions those decisions are expressions of faith or doubt faith or doubt fear of faith doubt Whatever it might be because what happens they see us facing situations and circumstances and they watch how we respond How we gonna respond now listen, you can tell your children anything you want to tell them But I'm here to tell you they are watching they they not only are listening, but they are looking for your response You can tell them all you want to you need to trust God, but if you're not trusting God, it's not gonna work You need to be honest, but if you're not honest, it's not gonna work what they're gonna listen Listen they pick up far more by sight than by sound they are watching our Lifestyle and let me tell you something friend if they see inconsistency in what we say with what we do Here's what they do scratch. It doesn't work If it worked my it would have my father my mother would have done something else doesn't work When I see the way parents are getting in debt, what do they say? You can't trust God. You got to go to the bank

And what are we doing? We're sending messages by our Lifestyle by the things that we do and the things that we fail to do the things we fail to trust God for when God Is able to meet every single need how will we ever listen? How will we ever teach our children to trust God when we not we're not trusting him. We're trusting in man We go to the bank. We borrow money. We get ourselves in debt We're head over heels in debt and we in this awful bondage then you then that they hear their parents talk about we don't have this We're in debt. We we owe this we owe that we owe the other you know what we're doing We're sending them a signal the way you live is you get in debt you live in bondage and you're miserable and you don't have Into peace and no security because this is the way you live. That is not the way God intends for his children to live It is lifestyle. It is what they see and this is why so often in the scriptures you find the Old Testament and He did evil in the eyes of he did and he walked in the ways of his father did evil in the eyes of God Over and over and over in the Kings you read that he he walked in the ways of his father and did evil in the eyes of God or They walked in the ways of their father and were good Kings All of us are passing down and we are passing on either faith trust in God or we're passing on doubt and unbelief We are passing on something. You so I'm not passing on anything. Yes, you are and So what this whole generation needs they need they need living Examples of men and women godly men and women fathers and mothers who have faith who say I'm trusting God No matter what and I think about the second person that probably influenced my life the most is my own mom and I can remember How many times she and I would get out of the bed and pray? wouldn't have anything and Was have have some need and I'd say well and being a kid. I was a little frightened But that's so mom. What are we gonna do? Here's what she'd say. We're gonna trust God We just gonna trust God and I because I didn't have an idea exactly oftentimes what that meant or how that would how that would happen and Listen over and over and over and over again I saw God meet need after need after you know what my mom was doing down with the bed She could have been too busy. She could have said well, you know go to bed son cut out the lights get in the bed My mom knelt by the bed and we talked about God and

She talked about trusting God and every time something would come along. We didn't know how to handle She would talk about trusting God. You know what in my ear still rings. We just gonna trust God We just gonna trust God. We just gonna trust God. You know what she was doing She was passing on to me by her lifestyle by her difficulty by hardship her trials and the way she responded to them She was passing on to me this message you trust God no matter what you trust God when you can't see you a clear you trust God when things look Possible you trust him when it's hard you trust him when it's difficult when you trust him when everything looks dark you trust him I'm here to tell you it sank into my heart She by her lifestyle said to me God is reliable God is trustworthy You can bet on him in every circumstance no matter what you face in life. You can trust him And I remember when I went to college had $75 to my name, but you know what I had I had Something passed on to me that it didn't make a difference how little I had or how much I had I knew that somehow God would make a way and all these years God has always made a way You know why because two people in my life passed on their awesome faith to me. You can trust him. He's reliable He'll be there. He'll meet it. He'll meet your needs. He'll do exactly what he's promised. Just put your faith in him It doesn't make a difference what it looks like just trust him Well, how do we pass it on we pass it on first of all by passing on the principles that we've learned We pass it on likewise as a result of our own lifestyle but we also pass it on by our participation in their life and participation other people's lives that is you see when you and I are open and Transparent and we say well Let me tell you how God worked in my life and one of the wonderful things to be able to do as a dad or mother is to kneel down with the bedside at night with Your children when they're small and say For example, you know, I always read them different kinds of stories, but I love to tell them what was going on in my life So let me tell you what God did in my life You know what? What listen if you want something to soak into your child's mind The last thing you do before you cut the lights out and you tell them good night

You tell them something that God has done in your life. You explain to them how God has worked in your life You know what happens gets into their mind all night during their sleep. The Spirit of God is doing what? He's just building that into their very he's building that into their very thought patterns And so what happens if you will go to sleep, whatever you go to sleep with the last thing you think of it I'm here to tell you the Spirit of God will take your conscious and your subconscious mind and he will work that into your being And listen if you thinking evil things dirty things nasty things or holy things This it's it's true all the way The Spirit listen the Spirit of God will use those good things the devil will use those things that are not good And so it's good to go to bed thinking about our Lord Talking about him and saying to your children Let me tell you what God is doing and to do that. You've got to be transparent So, you know what? Let me tell you how I blew it. I Really? I really messed it up this time I should have trusted God about this, but I didn't do it and I've asked God to forgive me And I hope you'll forgive me about I you know what I just blew it One thing a kid can't stand is a perfect father and a perfect mother who never make a mistake and who are never wrong You want to ruin your kids you give them that kind of image and it's over How do I know that? I know for lots of reasons but I can tell you one Took a survey in our college department several years ago and said ask him lots of questions and one of the things what was the Thing that they most disliked about their parents top of the list. They're never wrong Top of the list they're never wrong We're all wrong about some things. We all have to be open and transparent You see if I'm gonna pass on my faith, listen, if I'm gonna pass on my faith and it's gonna stick I've got to pass on my failures Well, you know It wasn't that God didn't do his he didn't do his thing. It's just that I didn't trust him I took the easy way. You know what happens you say? Well, won't that undermine their faith? No, it says my dad's real My dad's genuine. He's not perfect. He fails some assurance that they're gonna be times I felt but but what does he do when he fails?

He acknowledges it He repents of it if it's something to repent of and he gets up and keeps going and trust God and God works it out When he puts his faith in God, what do you do? You're still building faith in the life of that child Well, it takes more than perseverance and it takes more than participation When I think about what it takes I think about a simple word that oftentimes we forget and that's praise To pass on my faith It's very important that when my children or my grandchildren or when my friends When we have talked about something that they're going through and they trust God and God comes through for them as he does and works It out. It's time to listen to thank God But but to also he prays on them you trust him praise God you trust him Look what God did in your life. You see there's something about there's something awesomely motivating about praise and especially in the life of a child rules Regulations and legalism does not help build a child's faith. But what helps build a child's faith is praise You see it's a motivation where you trusted him and look what he did. You did a fantastic job I knew he's gonna do it for you. God loves you. You know, what happens? What are you doing? You're motivating that child to trust him again because they're gonna be disappointments They're gonna be things that they want to trust God for that's not the will of God. And so, they're going to come up and think, well, God didn't do it. Well, let's see, did God answer your prayer? And though you didn't get what you expected and you didn't win this contest and you didn't win the game and you pray that you would, let's see what happened here. And then that's the time you have to get involved. And that's the time you praise them for their efforts and you laud them for their faith. And then you help them understand why God maybe allowed it to happen a different way. And you help them to understand what Romans 8, 28 says.

And that is, he's engineering all of our circumstances in a way that's for our good. And so, it isn't a matter of saying to your kids, well, you just trust the Lord. No, it is a matter of helping them to interpret those times when they are naturally going to feel disappointed of God. Now, why didn't you do this? And all of us have been there, not just children, but all of us have been in those places. We've had to say, well, now, Lord, here's what I was trusting you for, what happened? And I do believe this, that most of the time, God is certainly willing to explain and to help us understand why certain things happen, why they don't happen. Not always. Some things he says he's going to reserve for the other side of life. But he's so willing to oftentimes tell us so much if we'll take the time to listen and ask why and search out the reason. God, what were you up to? What are you doing? And most of the time, we're going to find out, well, the Lord, Lord, here's what you did. You withheld that so you could give me something much better. But thank you, God, for not answering my prayer. Then your faith's growing. Any time you can bring a child into the reality of who God is and that he is trustworthy and that he loves them and that he

will work in their life and meet their needs, I'm here to tell you, you're building, listen, you are building a foundation that no amount of money, no amount of land, no amount of stocks, no amount of bonds, nothing else you can give them can match. Passing on your faith, there's nothing to match that. So I want to ask you a question. What are you passing on to your children, to your grandchildren? What are you passing on to your friends? Doubt, fear, frustration, anxiety, or an unshakable faith in the living God in whom you have trusted your whole future, your whole eternal destiny? Well, when you begin to praise them and laud them for the good things that they do, what happens is they just, God begins to give them more tests, and what happens? They begin to grow. Well, let me give you one other thing. There are lots of things I could say, but if I'm going to pass on my faith to someone, then I certainly must pray for them. What I need to pray is this. I need to pray, God, open their eyes to help them see the evidence of your hand in this. And then I want to pray, God, send them enough needs. Send them enough difficulties. Send them enough hardship so that they will have to trust you because how did all of us learn to trust God? Not because somebody told us something.

We've all learned to trust God. By what? By getting thrown into situations where he was all we had to go on. He's all we had left. Now, here's the one key I want you to think about. If you listen, say amen. If you're going to pass on your faith to your children, you've got to be willing to back off and refuse to bail them out of the messes they get into. Now, every father and every grandfather wants to say, oh, you sweet, wonderful thing, well, you know, dad will fix this. No. You know what? Let me tell you something. God doesn't fix the messes I get into until I get right with him. We, until I learn the lesson that he wants me to learn, until I turn to him for whatever it might be. If you bail your children out when they make a mistake, you bail them out of the difficulties and the hardships because you don't want to see them hurt. You know what you're doing? You're cheating them out of the lesson. You know what? All of us have hurt. All of us face situations and circumstances we can't bail ourselves out of. Nobody can get us out. So what do we do?

We learn to trust God. We hang in there. We trust him no matter what happens. God rewards that. Now, what we want to do is we want to come along, give them this and give them that. We want to be sure, oh, we don't want you to hurt. We don't want you to have needs. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. We want to be sure. And all of us are probably guilted in some degree to wanting to make it easier on our children. That's a natural, normal thing. But when it comes to training them up and training them to trust God, that's not the way to do it. You have to let them hurt. You have to let them cry. You have to let them weep. And you see, now here's another issue. If you listen to this one, say amen. Here's the decision you have to make. If my daughter or my children learn to trust God, is that more important or is it more important

that I have their acceptance? I don't want them to feel bad about their parents. I don't want them to feel, oh, he doesn't love me anymore. What's the most important, they learn to trust God or that they feel like, or that I feel like I have their acceptance? Their acceptance of me is not nearly as important as their learning to trust the living God. And I think about how many children get cheated. Listen, I think about children who grew up in homes where there's wealth on top of wealth on top of wealth. They've got the finest automobiles there in life. They wear all the clothes with the patches on the back. And they go to the finest schools. They've got credit cards. They got everything. You know what? Poor kids. Poor kids, poor, poor, poor children. You know why? They don't have to trust God. They've got dad. They don't have to be in need. They got a credit card. They don't have to worry and fret about things because somebody will bail them out. And parents want to bail them out because they don't want to be embarrassed. Poor kids. You know who the richest kids are? The richest kids are those, the richest people are those who

don't have it all. They don't have it all together. In fact, they don't have a lot of things in life. But here's what they do have. They have an unwavering, unshakable trust in the living God. And they walk through difficulties and hardships and burdens and trials in life. And God provides their needs one at a time. He strengthens them, deepens their faith, builds a relationship, builds intimacy with Him. Those are the fortunate, most blessed people. Listen, the truth is, those of us who've learned to trust Him, we are the rich people. We are the wealthy people. We might not have much money in the bank, but you know where we've got it? We've got it right here. This is what you live and die by. You can't live and die by money. You can, listen, when a person dies, how many of you ever seen a casket loaded with $100 bills? There's no stocks, no barns, no diamond rings, and no precious jewels in that all. You know what's in there? Nothing but dust that's still together. Can't take it with you, brother. Then what do you do? Here's what you do. You pass it on.

So when you're gone, what happens? It keeps passing on and passing on and passing on and passing on and passing on. And when you think about children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, great-great-great-grandchildren whose faith has been impacted because you learned to trust the living God, don't cheat your children by giving them everything. Hurt, pain, suffering, sickness, sorrow, heartache, tribulation, trials, temptations, yes, because that's what builds godly, strong faith. You can pass it on if you have it. Where does it begin? Here's where it begins. It begins by placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, acknowledging your failure and your separation from Him because of your sin, believing that when Jesus went to the cross, He died and paid your sin debt in full, and saying to Him, I'm confessing my sin to You. I'm asking You to forgive me of my sin on the basis not of how good I'll be, but on the basis of the death of Your Son, I will receive You as my personal Savior and accept it to be done. That's the beginning of your faith. Then what happens? God builds upon that, and you have something awesome to give. Now, I'll ask you one last question. Do you have a faith that's worth giving away? Listen to this. Can your children or your grandchildren or your friends or your family or your friends or your neighbors around you look

at you and say, you know, it works? I see it working in her life. I see it working in his life. That's what I want. That's the kind of faith I want because I've seen it work. That's what God wants of all of us. And that's the kind of faith that others can look at and say, God, it works, and that's what I want. And that's what He wants you and me to pass on.