Haven Today - Teaching Faith Through Song

As today's kids become adults, they're navigating more pressures and

temptations than their parents did, and the newest addition to that list of

temptations is catching many by surprise. Sports betting. Once reserved for

back alley meetups is now in the open.

In the US, the minimum age for legal sports betting is 18, at least in some states,

but teens are finding ways to get around the rules and are gaining entry to

platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings. Marketing ads present them as good

clean fun and are designed to be addictive, but make the platform money every

time before they know it, Gen Zers are getting into debt, believing the next bet

will recover their losses. As outsiders looking in, we know where this goes.

What's the key to protecting the kids in our lives? We need to talk with them,

we need to pray with them and instill God's word, because the fear of the Lord

truly is the beginning of wisdom. Welcome to Haven today, I'm David Wolland

sharing the great story that's all about Jesus, and we're continuing in a series

called Raising Faithful Voices. Yesterday we began a discussion with Randall Goodgame,

he's a friend of the ministry for well over a decade. I remember first meeting Randall in Nashville

and my own children were young, and they've grown up singing his scripture songs. In fact,

on an upcoming spring break road trip with my seven year old Intel, we'll be bringing his song

collection with us in the car, not only because it's fun, but because I've already seen

these songs help my kids hide God's word in their hearts. And let me tell you, it can do the same

for the kids in your life or your grandkids. When I caught up with Randall a couple weeks ago in

Nashville, I was excited, my kids were excited that I was spending time with him because his music

has been used by the Lord to bring our family together and help us know God's word better.

I love the idea of thinking, I'm going to work on something that a parent and a kid might listen

to together. As a believer and as a dad, I was inspired by the calling to speak into that moment,

like, hey, parent and kid all four years at the same time. Here's something you guys could both

sink your teeth into together. Randall Goodgame will be back in just a moment to share more about how

families can know God's word better. That's why he put the 52 sing the Bible scripture songs together,

and they come with a hard back book to help families talk about the songs they're singing and

the scripture they're learning. Now many of these songs, my own family has been singing for years,

so when I heard that Randall had created this resource, I wanted to reconnect. All of these

songs are provided digitally and come with the hard back book and the combo is a resource called

Sing the Bible 52 Bible Verses for Kids to learn and sing. It has a digital link to listen to all the

songs whenever, wherever. And the hard back book is beautifully illustrated filled with questions

and activities created to help children learn God's word. And with spring break and Easter coming

up, this would be a great gift for your own family or a family you love. So please reach out and

get in touch. Make your gift to Haven today. And when you do know that we can send this resource

to you or directly to another family on your behalf. Our number is 865 Haven, 865 Haven,

or you can give online HavenToday.org. And when you do, don't forget to request sing the Bible.

Again, the website HavenToday.org. And now let's hear one of those songs from Sing the Bible based

on Ephesians 2 verse 10. Here's Masterpiece by Randall Goodgame.

It is the gift of God not by work, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's Masterpiece. He has created us a new and Christ.

So we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

This is Haven Today. I'm David Wolland sitting across from Randall Goodgame in a bouncy hotel room in Nashville.

But this is where you live. We came to visit so glad we could get together today.

David, thank you. It's great to be back with you. What I say bouncing, I'm just talking about

the sound. But you know, we're listening to music that you wrote for kids and it

one makes you want to move. We might be bouncing by the end. I don't know. We were just listening

to a song called Masterpiece and it finds its roots in Ephesians. Tell us why that was on your

heart today to begin with. Well, that's a great one for kids because in for adults,

but because it incorporates the gospel, it really kind of, it spells out the gospel.

Ford has been saved. Not because of what you did, so that you can't boast. But then it also

says who they are in Christ. That's right. That God made you and he made you just perfect,

just like you are. You are a masterpiece. And so and you've been made to do things. Not just to

sit around. So it's got a lot of great stuff going on in there. So yeah, thanks for playing it.

Oh, good place to start. And we should reintroduce anybody that didn't pick up the program

yesterday. Randall, good game. You have been writing scripture songs under the banner,

sing the Bible. And it's, it is for kids, but really it's for families because you're very aware

parents are going to be listening to. And if the parents get tired of it, the kids won't be

listening as long as they otherwise would. And besides, it's formational for every age, isn't it?

That's right. You know, we were talking earlier a little bit. I confessed to you that I actually

still listen sometimes to my own songs because obviously I didn't write the words. And it's the words

that I need to hear. That's right. The melodies, they help them. They rattle around in my mind and

the Lord brings them to mind when I need them. So that's right. Well, today I promised in the last

program today, we're going to get into your testimony and just get into the story of the life

that God has given you and where he's led you. You know, the, the, the lost practice of testimony telling

I always like to bring it back as much as we can. It's very important for us. So I, you know,

I've told our audience that you've written songs and you record songs for kids and families,

but you've been involved in music. I'm guessing it goes back a long, long ways, doesn't it?

Where does your story begin? Well, my musical journey began at eight years old. I was one of three

kids and we all had piano lessons. I started it at eight. But my spiritual journey probably began,

I guess, I'm sure before that, before the foundations of the world possibly. Right? Isn't that true?

Isn't that true? When the stars sang together as the earth was made. But I grew up in a Christian

home. My parents taught Sunday school. I was baptized and I was 12 in a Baptist church.

In college, went to a Methodist college, played the piano for the chapel, met my wife,

went to a Presbyterian church in when I got married and moved to Nashville.

So the Lord has been with me the whole time, but it has been probably like you just a long journey

of figuring out how desperate I am in my need for Jesus. That's right.

So I'd say when I look back now at 52, I look back and I can kind of chronicle my journey by

how little I really recognized how much I needed him and whatever phase I was in. But how much I

thought I really did trust him. That's right. You know, when we got married, we had a terrible

first year of marriage because both my wife and I grew up in the church. She's a preacher's kid.

And we realized, oh, we do not know what it means to trust Jesus.

Because this is hard. And it was forcing us to go, wow, we are impatient. We're not kind.

We are selfish. And all that must, it's rooted in our sin. And so we got to run to Jesus and

figure out what that really means to trust him. And then you have kids and you realize, wow,

this is hard. I'm selfish. I don't want to give as much as I'm having to give.

So it's being this, the big, this great, big humanity reveal of how much I need Jesus.

So yeah, in thinking about my testimony, it's all a deeper digging in how much I need him.

Yeah. And you know, we were, we were made to need him. You know, sometimes we,

well, when it comes to telling your story, you know, any of us, we're tempted to tell it as a

story of overcoming of great success. And you know, we, you know, we, we, we see those kinds of

stories in the movies. We think we're supposed to have stories like that. But, but in reality,

it's a story of discovering a need of discovering, like Paul says, when I'm weak, I'm strong.

It's a, it's a story of discovering exactly who God made us to be, which is totally dependent

on him. He doesn't cause sheep for nothing. That's right. That's right. And you know, it sounds like

for maybe if someone that's not a believer, it sounds like a, what a terrible story. Like,

you're desperately needy all the time. But well, in the gospel, of course, it's the opposite.

We are, we're set free. Yes. We're set free. Suddenly, we realize not only do we desperately need

Jesus, but he's here. Yeah. He is here for every provision. And so we spirit can guide and

a company and inform and comfort. Yeah. And so, you know, if I just pick up that story as I left off,

you know, having kids, you realize how selfish you are. Well, then suddenly now you've got teenagers.

And they, they like mock you and belittle you, you know, not, I'm not, I'm not like telling

them my, telling stories on my kids. Well, it just helps to know that we're not all alone. You

know, we're in this together. Yeah. You know, they don't know anything. And they think they know

everything. Yeah. So, but then you, you know, we're forced every day into this,

dependent on Jesus and try to reflect the gospel to them when they are these little,

you know, unmade monsters that are like, you know, these kind of half humans that know just enough

to not make sense all the time. And our job of leaning on Jesus gets harder and harder because

we're offended. You know, I get it would get offended by my kids and want to break out like the

rod of self-righteousness. Yeah. And then if I do, I wind up having to apologize later,

which I would hate because I'm only, I only had to act that way because of what a jerk you were

being. But what ends up being revealed to them in my apology when it sincere is, I am a sinner

just like you. Yeah. And so now we're on this journey together of not having to model Jesus

for our kids, but model needing Jesus for our kids. And then then we're kind of in this together.

We can lock arms and I can apologize to them. They can apologize to me. We're both kind of

laid bare in our need for Jesus in front of them. And like we were just saying, it's a good thing.

Because in that, we're set free. And the Lord took this journey and you're describing the

journey, one of the, one of the common types of journeys that believers who get married and

become parents, I'll kind of find themselves on a similar trajectory. And the Lord is using that

and working in you in that. And then you mentioned you had a musical journey as well.

And so those two things sort of grew up together and have intersected each other along the way.

This is just a point of reference, but I think it's an interesting one. I mean, you were,

you were in the music world. You were writing songs. I remember that from the first time we met,

you were telling us why I used to write for this group and for that group and that sort of thing.

And then, but the Lord just kind of led you into a very good and purposeful niche of music that

became your own thing. So talk us through that. Tell us that story.

You know, it's interesting. I, yeah, I used to write songs for a lot of other people.

But Andrew Peterson and I had made this kids record together. And then we wound up writing songs

for veggie tails. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, it was just the greatest fun, most fun little season.

And it was through writing songs for them that I realized how much I loved it. I loved the idea

of thinking, I'm going to work on something that a parent and a kid might listen to together.

And that, that little kind of moment, just imagining a parent and a child on a couch,

just seemed so pregnant with possibility and inspiration, like creative opportunity for an artist,

as a believer and as a dad, I was inspired by the calling to speak into that moment, like,

hey, parent and kid, all four years at the same time. Here's something you guys could both

sink your teeth into together. That was endlessly inspiring to me and continues to inspire me

to this day. I'm still just now, just as inspired by that opportunity of thinking about trying to

make something that a parent and kid can enjoy together. And this is, this is interesting to me,

because you've been at this long enough that you could write this on the first page of your book.

You dedicated it to the first generation of slugs and bugs kids. Now all grown up and raising

small humans. If you're own, you've got the ball. Wow, that's a legacy. That's so fun to read for me.

It was really fun to put that in there. You know, you've got the ball. It refers to the song,

Who's Got the Ball? Which came on the first record. That's great. It budgeted me that connection.

Yeah. Who's got the ball? Livy, Livy does. And so for anybody that picks up that book,

that grew up with slugs and bugs from the very beginning, we'll get that reference.

Oh, that's great. Well, now we've got it. This is Haven today. If you just joined us,

this is Randall Goodgames sitting across from me, David Woolen, and we are having so much fun

talking about something that has been very personal for me and my family over these many years

of singing the Bible together. And it's this man who's right in front of me who the Lord used to

make that happen. And Randall, there's a whole lot of people out there that are saying the same thing.

And I know you hear from people quite a bit. In fact, you just pulled out your phone as we were

getting together today and showed me a little, little boy singing one of your songs. What's it

like for you to see something like that, you know, in a real person's life interacting with your

music? Well, it's just endlessly inspiring, you know, and I was telling you before you were

sharing your kids about singing some of these songs. And it's just always an answer to prayer because

that's literally, even when we were making the records, my producer of most of the slugs and bugs

songs Ben Shive, we would write someone's name at underneath each song on the white board. Like

who we were thinking of, who we were thinking of. We were producing it, writing it that might need

to hear it. And even, you know, I was like, do concerts. And we just pray for the people out there

that are listening to these songs that the Lord would use it, how he would see fit. And we also know

that it doesn't return void. So yeah, it's endlessly encouraging. Thank you. Yeah, that's right.

And it's interesting, too, when you consider the way in which things have shifted and changed.

I mean, only a few years have passed really since your kids were young and outperforming with you

and recording with you. They're on a number of your records. But it's funny to me, though,

thinking back at how much the world has changed, even just in this tiny little bit of time.

And how fast the news is moving, how rapidly developing technology that is very alarming to many

of us, you know, is how oppressive the world at large feels. And, you know, I mean, Jesus said at

wars and rumors of wars, but man, does it feel like we're in a world that is a disaster unfolding

before our eyes. But then it, you know, it lands in our own lives in very intense and personal ways.

And so when we, when we experience the weightiness of what life real life is like and how helpless we

are really in the face of so many things that are so much greater than us, it's amazing how God's

word speaks hope and grounding comfort and reminds us of what's true and takes away these

burdens that are too big for us. I mean, his word does that uniquely.

Yeah. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking, yeah, the world is insane right now.

But also, it's kind of always been insane. That's right. You know, I was just thinking,

the David, when he's running away from, he's out in the woods or out in the plains or the hills,

with his, you know, his little band of brothers. There's, I think it's Psalm 11, where it starts out

with, he says, you want me to go to like run to the hills, but I know, I know where my help comes from.

And there's actually, that's, that actually might, I might be quoting a different song.

Psalm 21 is, yeah, I lift my eyes to the hills, but Psalm 11 is where he's, he's saying,

you want me to look to the hills, but I look to the Lord. Yes. And I think that's, you know,

that's what we have found in the gospel is that he is the place of safety for us. He is our

refuge. How many times in the Psalms are we confronted with that image of, he is the place we

run to, you are my refuge. And that is what I think I'm trying to do. And you're trying to do with

speaking the gospel to people every day and every week. And what we hope this book does with

families every week is that they are reminding each other and reminding themselves that the Lord

is who we run to. And as we memorize his word, we'll be able to remember him and what he thinks

about us and what he says about himself, what the promise is, the promises that he's made,

these things will come to us quicker if we've been meditating on that. That's right. He's the burden

lifter. He's the one, he's the one who says come to me. That's right. He's the one he says, I will

give you rest, which is a topic I love talking about. It's such a big, big, big whole Bible

concept, but Jesus puts himself right in the center of it. That's right. And when we're at rest,

we more fully glorify him. When we're at rest, we're free. You know, we were just watching the winter

Olympics, you know, a short time ago. And there's this one skater from the United States that maybe

some of your listeners watch that has this effortless freedom about how she skates. They probably

know the story. She was burned out at 16, retired, and then came back at 18 and started skating again,

but because she had was now skating with this new different purpose, it wasn't for other people,

it was just for herself. And for the joy of it, she, her body and her movements on the ice,

it just sort of you watch her and you just, you can't deny it. She, this person looks free.

And that's a great, like a visual object lesson metaphor for what we, how we become, as we

trust in the Lord with our heart, as we rest in him, as we come to him, we who are needy and

heavy laden, he becomes our rest and our burdens are lifted. And so, you know, all these things

happen for the spirit worked its way out of us. We become salt and light in the world. His name

is glorified because we're resting in him, loving our neighbor well. And the gospel is worked out

and in the world. Mm-hmm. Amen. Well, Randall, good game. Thank you so much for being with us. This

is a really fun conversation. It's gone by way too fast. We'll loop back again tomorrow. But

for now, we should close with one of your songs, but that'll thank you. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you, Dan. It's my pleasure.

We'll never be put to shame.

A song of adoration and trust from Psalm 25, taken from week two of the Sing the Bible resource.

This is Haven today. I'm David Wolland, musician and author Randall, good game will be back with us

tomorrow to share more about his brand new collection of 52, Sing the Bible Songs, which come with a

hardback book for families. Now, as you've just heard, all of Randall's music is top-notch.

It's enjoyable for adults and kids alike, but even better, each song is word-for-word scripture.

And I love that Randall has included a digital link to all 52 songs with this beautifully

illustrated hardback book. You can get one for your family or for a family you love. This is a great

spring break or Easter gift. Reach out to us here at Haven. Be sure to ask for Sing the Bible

by Randall Good Game. Call us at 865 Haven. Again, 865 Haven. Or you can make your gift online at

HavenToday.org. HavenToday.org. I'm David Wolland. Once you come back again next time,

we'll be keeping it all about Jesus. It's the great story here on Haven Today.