GIVING YOUR CHILDREN BACK TO GOD
(Baby Dedication)
Question: Have you ever given your children back to God?
(Some are thinking, “I’d like to give them back, but I didn’t
think God would take them back. I thought He had a ‘no return’ policy on
kids! Besides, I lost the receipt!”)
The truth is, there is not a parent here who hasn’t had a few moments
or days when they wouldn’t have liked to package up that kid and take
him/her back to God’s customer service counter and demand, “I want my
money back!”
Well, I’m not suggesting you return your kids to God and try to get your
money back, when I ask you if you have ever given your children back to
God.
What I am asking is, have you ever really:
Recognized your children are a precious gift from the Lord, and they
belong ultimately and always to God first—not to you?
Released ownership of your children to Him—understanding God is
responsible for the way in which they were designed and already knows
the plan and purpose for their future?
Realized God has left it up to you to show them His way?
God has been asking us to put many things on His altar recently. And
today, He is asking every one of us who are parents to “BRING OUR
CHILDREN AND PUT THEM ON THE ALTAR!”
BIBLICAL EXAMPLES:
There are many examples of parents in the Bible who brought their
children to God and gave them back to Him:
1. There is the classic example of Hannah bringing her son Samuel (the
son for whom she had prayed), and presenting him to God, and handing
young Samuel over to Eli the priest. (I Sam. 1:27-28) For this child I
prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28
Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he
shall be lent to the LORD.
2. Of course, you remember Joseph and Mary brought the infant child
Jesus to the temple following his circumcision at 8 days. they brought
him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (Lk. 2:22).
But the example of a parent surrendering his child to God that I want us
to read about today is that of Abraham offering Isaac on Mt. Moriah.
Genesis 22, -- let’s see what God would have to say to us today about
“Giving Your Children Back To God.”
TEXT GENESIS 22:1-13
• Abraham loved Isaac. V.2 God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom
you love, and sacrifice him ...”
• Isaac had been a MIRACLE baby. He was born when Sarah was 90 and
Abraham was 100 years of age.
Do you know—the best thing Abraham ever did for Isaac was to tie him to
that altar and to surrender him back to God?
1) Had Abraham refused to give Isaac back to God, he would have
forfeited all God’s promises and plans for Isaac. Isaac would have lived
and died in obscurity—a nomad, and a nobody.
2) Because Abraham obeyed and gave Isaac back to God, Isaac received the
fullness of God’s best plan and promise for his life:
• Isaac became a wealthy man.
• Isaac became the forefather of God’s own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Isaac’s life is still having an impact on and blessing millions of
people worldwide through his offspring—Jesus Christ.
And so, you and I need to learn from Abraham today. If we refuse and
fail to give our children back to God—we may very well be forfeiting
God’s best plan and purpose for their lives. And when we entrust our
children back to God—we secure for them the covenant of God’s best
purpose and plan for their lives.
FOUR ELEMENTS OF GIVING YOUR CHILD BACK TO GOD:
1) Giving your child to God is a CONFIRMATION of your love for God.
• The first thing you are saying when you give that child back to the
Lord is simply this...that you love God even more than you love that
child.
• This is exactly what Abraham proved by his willingness to offer Isaac.
He was demonstrating that his love and fear of God were supreme in his
life above all else. Abraham loved God above the most prized treasure of
his life...his only son Isaac.
Matthew 10:37-38
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of
me.
Not only a Confirmation…
2) Giving your children to God is a CLARIFICATION of ownership.
--When you give your child back to God, you are openly declaring that:
• This child is a gift from God.
• This child does not really belong to you.
• This child belongs to God.
(You have the privilege to love and train this child.
But this child is not yours—but God’s!)
• Was this not what had to be on Abraham’s mind when he lay Isaac on the
altar? Was he not saying, “Lord, this young man belongs to you—not me?”
He was saying, “You do with him as you please. He’s yours!”
That little boy or girl does not really belong to you—they belong to
God! They are a precious gift from God, on loan to you.
Ps. 127:3 “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of
the womb is his reward.” (KJV).
Note: We’d better be careful how we treat and care for God’s property!
Note: God did not authorize the state to raise children. And God did not
authorize day care centers to raise kids. God authorized Mommies and
Daddies to raise kids!
Contrary to what Hillary would tell you, it does not take a village to
raise a child. It takes a Mom and a Dad!
Not only a Confirmation, Clarification…
3) Giving Your Children To God Is A COMMITMENT to Raise Your Children
God’s Way!
Eph. 6:4 says we are to bring our children up “in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord.”
To give your child to God is not just a CEREMONY...It is a COMMITMENT.
It is a commitment that you are going to:
• Be a Godly parent. (Parent dedication…requires getting right with God.
• Teach this child of Christ. (they will need to be saved)
• Keep this child in church. (not on bus, but with you)
• Love this child. (even if loving them means disciplining them
• Pray for this child.
• Train this child.
• Stay married for this child.
• Make your home a holy place.
• Put away worldliness.
• Live a righteous life.
• I think some people see baby dedication as a magical ceremony.
this little ceremony means nothing—zero—if you are not making a sincere,
life-long commitment to raise this child God’s way!
Ex: I like what Joshua told the children of Israel as they settled into
their new home, the Promised Land.
Joshua 24:14-15
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth:
and put away the gods which your fathers served…and serve ye the LORD.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day
whom ye will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Not only a Confirmation, Clarification, Commitment…
4) Giving Your Children To God is a CLAIMING of God’s plan and promises
for that child’s life.
• Isaac inherited God’s blessings, protection and promises because his
dad, Abraham, gave him back to God.
Genesis 22:15-18 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of
heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is
upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
because thou hast obeyed my voice.
• Your children are blessed by your obedience to God AND cursed by your
disobedience to God. (they have a free will, but you stack the odds in
their favor or against them by the way YOU live!)
• As you obey God with your life, and as you give that child back to
God, you are posturing that child to receive God’s very best for his/her
life.
Proverbs 22:6 -
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will
not depart from it.
Certainly we are aware that children are in trouble in America's homes.
Juvenile
delinquency is increasing at 7 times the rate of population. What is
causing this?
One noted expert on the family states that there is a poison of
permissiveness
pervading America's homes. In other words, parents are the blame for
much of the
problem. We have sown the wind of permissiveness and we are reaping the
whirlwind
of crime, disobedience, drugs, sexual license, etc.
"In years gone by, Papa administered a stern code of discipline to
Junior. However,
the electric razor took away his razor strap, furnaces did away with the
woodshed,
and tax worries removed his few remaining hairs and the necessity for a
hairbrush.
Perhaps that is why kids are running wild today-- Dad ran out of
weapons!" My dad believed in meditation. He used to tell me, "Sit down
and shut up!"
…So, this is what it means to give your children back to God:
1) It is a CONFIRMATION of your supreme love for Christ.
2) It is a CLARIFICATION of ownership (God owns that child).
3) It is a COMMITMENT to raise that child under the Lordship of Jesus
Christ.
4) It is a CLAIMING of God’s best plan and promises for that child’s
life.
• This is exactly what transpired when Abraham took Isaac up Mt. Moriah
and laid him on the altar to give him to God.
1) Abraham was CONFIRMING his love and fear of Jehovah.
2) Abraham was CLARIFYING that Isaac really belonged to God.
3) Abraham was COMMITTING to be a Godly parent.
4) Abraham was CLAIMING God’s plan and promises for Isaac.
Child; Missions
Someone has said that 90% of all SBC missionaries were saved by the time
they were 12 years old.
