-The title, “child dedication” might give the impression that this ceremony is more about the children than the adults today.
-But in fact, it is about us today, but it is for the children in the days to come.
-It is about us today, because we…the parents, and their church family…are making the commitment, we are the ones “doing the dedicating.”
-But it is for the children in the days to come…we are making this formal commitment today because we want them to thrive…spiritually, mentally, relationally, and physically…into the future.
-We don’t baptize children before the age in which they are able to make their own commitment to Christ…because Scripture teaches that baptism follows conversion and conversion requires understanding and responding to the gospel.
-We do, hold these dedication services to communicate and celebrate…what we plan to demonstrate in the years to come…
That is a commitment to invest in the next generation for their good and for the glory of God.
This ceremony would be empty if it were only a ritual…what makes it meaningful is that it is a symbol of individual and community commitment…we are committing to do day to day, year by year…what this ceremony symbolizes.
This is about a commitment to investment in the next generation…for 36 years, we have followed through on that commitment as a church body.
This symbol of ceremony today…points forward to years of future investment in the lives of these children.
Of course this is not required by Scripture but it is allowed…and so why not take the chance to publicly, in community…make a commitment to the stewardship we have been given to raise our children in the faith.
-This commitment is really a solemn vow, embedded in a ceremony… these vows are rare things, as they should be: In my life I they have been limited to…
-Marriage vows
-Baptism
-Military oath of office
-When we dedicated our children
*They have been times of Making, Marking commitments:
*Followed by years of maturing those commitments.
What these rare and important commitments have in common: They are about a willingness to lay down our lives for something bigger than ourselves.
Marriage: In sickness and in health…Till death do we part
Baptism: Death to old life, raised to new life in Christ
Military oath: Defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic
-Then today…we are pledging to offer our lives as living sacrifices for these little ones.
*We, the church… not just the parents.
We are making and marking a commitment to the future on this day…to these children…that we will…mature in the years to come.
This is a commitment, that we, as a church together make…we do not just side idly by while parents make this commitment and we will not sit idly by while parents try on their own to accomplish their huge task.
We are in this together…that it not just words, this our legacy as a church…we have done this for decades…and this is our continuing commitment into the future.
-This commitment you are making today…does not negate the reality that your child must choose for him or herself someday…it is about your commitment to be found faithful.
-You must follow through on the commitment…this will mean leaning fully on God’s resources for your life: His Word, His Spirit, His People.
-Dedication: I am going to give you a semi-precious stone, that has been polished to bring out its once hidden beauty.
*How did a rough stone reveal its true beauty to the world.
- Skill—know what you are doing.
- Endurance—takes time
- Challenge—abrasive polishing.
*Your child has beauty, value, and potential.
*You are tasked with helping reveal that to the world—so that they will be blessed (happy) and a blessing (a delight to God and others.)
*This stone is a reminder…For you to keep showing up…embrace challenge, embrace faith and faithfulness.
PARENTS CHARGE:
Josh. 24:1Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel….2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers… lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.
On and on it goes…as they reflected on their lives…and were reminded that God was the hero…he did what they could not have done on their own…it was vitally important that they see this reality.
Now…24:14-15 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
*Did you see the balance?
God was the hero of the story…it all depended on him…GRACE
AND
They were to live the decided life…in a sense, as if it all depended on them…GRIT
That is the biblical balance: Fully trust God’s grace AND fully make the choices you need to make
Parenting…is truly about Grace and Grit
Three Challenges in this passage, these are the choices that they were to make:
- Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness
*Put him first
- Throw away idols
*Do not attempt to serve two masters
It cannot be done…it will only make you miserable and powerless.
- Choose, finally, fully…decide and then live decided
*Quit living “deciding if”…live the decided life.
Faith is a choice, like love…you decide who you will serve…then live decided not perpetually deciding.
*Same with marriage, same with parenting…”I’m doing this, not sure how, but I am doing this.”
*God is your only hope
*God is your child’s only hope
*You must choose and keep choosing to trust him…even when things are tough, or dark…stay faithful.
*Live like a parent who has chosen God…lived the decided, not the deciding life.
*You will not go far without living in community.
To that end…
CHURCH STAND I will verbalize a prayer of our commitment to these parents.
6.21.26 2 Timothy 41-18
I’m working on a parenting book entitled, Parenting as a stewardship.
Our children are a stewardship entrusted to us by God.
A parent’s responsibility is to be found faithful with that stewardship.
What is a steward?
A steward is someone entrusted with protecting, caring for, and managing resources that belong to someone else.
We own nothing, all we have has been given to us.
All of life is a stewardship and parenting is a subset of our lives as a whole.
It is a very important part of our stewardship but in our parenting as in every area of our lives God has called us to be found faithful with whatever he has entrusted to us.
A focus on faithfulness and stewardship will help us live with a long-term perspective and not be tempted to chase short-term relief, or unhealthy trends, if and when things get challenging and confusing.
This applies to parenting, marriage, and of course pastoring…ministry in the church.
As Paul finishes his letter he moves from reminding Timothy of the resources that God has given him to reminding him of the stewardship that God has given him.
Last week the key resources for his ministry were: Godly examples and God’s word
This week he casts vision for his stewardship as a pastor…all that God has given him he is to be found faithful with.
Paul doesn’t give Timothy a numerical goal for how many people to have in Sunday worship, he doesn’t tell him to come up with a five or ten year vision for planting churches around Asia Minor.
I suppose these kinds of goals are okay…I am also convinced that they are not necessary …and sometimes I think that they are just contrived.
What is necessary is that we be found faithful with the stewardship God has given each of us.
Faithfulness is right column.
Fruitfulness is to some degree at least, left column.
Let’s finish Paul’s letter to Timothy…
Chapter 4:1
- In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge.
The background or etymology for “Charge ” comes from a Latin word for a cart or wagon.
Over time it came to mean loading that wagon…you charged it with stuff.
Then it came to describe loading someone with responsibility or obligation…became less literal and more figurative.
In legal terms, “charged with a crime”…means placing a blame on someone…loading them with a criminal charge.
In military “charge your weapon (load it)” became “Charge!” in battle…again loading troops with obligation. “You might die…but charge…it is your duty!”
In weddings the pastor’s sermon is called the “Charge to the couple”…verbalizing their obligation in covenant marriage…loading them up with commitment.
I just gave a charge related to our children.
It every case a charge, is a serious declaration of responsibility with real life implications.
Here Paul is using legal jargon, but he is not bringing a charge against Timothy he is bringing a charge to him…he is loading him up with pastoral obligation.
The seriousness of this charge is seen in the two witnesses he includes in it.
Jewish law required two witnesses in a trial…What greater witnesses are there than the Father and the Son.
Paul, his mentor, writing from death row, calling God the Father and God the Son as his witnesses loads a charge on Timothy…no pressure.
Imagine Timothy, sitting in Turkey, reading this letter for the first time…he is already challenged, encouraged, stretched…thinking about what he just read…”Everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted.”
“Okay” Timothy reads and breathes deeply…”what else”
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge.”
I am sure that Timothy can feel his own heart beating in his chest…as he reads that line.
Paul is about to lay something even more weighty on me.
Here is the solemn charge:
- Preach the Word.
3:16-17: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So…I lay this charge you…Preach this God-breathed word.
He follows the charge with four follow-on imperatives for that one great imperative
- Be prepared in and out of season:
When it is easy and productive and you are feeling good, and people are responding.
When you can see fruit.
When it is hard and dry and you are feeling terrible, and you can’t see any results.
Circumstances don’t dictate faithfulness.
Psychologists talk about what is called an internal and external locus of control.
Locus refers to the conceptual “location” (internal or external) where a person believes the responsibility for their life events, choices, outcomes, reside.
People with an internal locus of control are more motivated to take action to change their situation because they believe their efforts/actions matter.
They are more likely to take responsibility for mistakes versus blaming external forces.
*It’s why I challenged my grandson when he tried to blame the refs a couple of weeks ago…I want him to have in internal locus of control.
They tend to view challenges as obstacles to overcome rather than reasons to give up.
Then they are less influenced by the opinions of others and are driven more by their own values and standards.
People with an external locus of control tend to struggle with a lack of motivation and initiative…of course they do.
*Why make hard choices, if my choices don’t really matter?
External forces are against me, and I can’t win…so why try?
They blame circumstances, bad luck, systemic disadvantages, and other people for their failures.
They are less resilient, more anxious, and reactive rather than proactive in the face of challenge and adversity
A faithfulness focus is an internal locus of control.
God is, of course external to us and in control of all things…but he has given to us the ability to be found faithful.
Nothing external to us can block that goal.
In season and out season…good weather and good results, bad weather and no visible results…preach the word.
Be faithful to the gospel.
The next imperative under “Preach the word” is:
Correct
This was one of the uses of Scripture Paul gave in the last chapter.
Scripture was said to be useful for “correcting” so Timothy is to use it to “correct”
Correct what, how?
Correcting addresses what people believe.
False teachers were teaching what is not true about ultimate things…Timothy was to preach the Word in a corrective way.
If people believe wrong things about physical reality the results can be devastating.
-The brilliant Marie Curie and her husband discovered radium and won the Nobel Prize for it.
She also failed to understand the health implications for radium…she kept test tubes of it in her coat, and she put them by her bed at night as a nightlight.
Her wrong beliefs, inadequate understanding about radium eventually killed her through a radium exposure blood cancer.
Wrong beliefs about spiritual realities are even more dangerous…because the implications are for this life and beyond.
God’s word corrects our beliefs.
Next Timothy is told to preach the word in a way that “rebukes”
Rebuke:
Correct is focused on truth, doctrine.
Rebuke is a more dire and a more direct warning
It is focused on behavior…behavior is downstream from beliefs.
We preach the Word of God ultimately not just to change minds but in order to change lives…impact behavior.
Beliefs shape behavior…when wrong beliefs have become wrong behavior…things are dire.
God’s word corrects beliefs…and if those beliefs have become behaviors…it rebukes those behaviors when they are out of line with the truth.
Correct and rebuking through the Word of God… both of these are displays of kindness.
Years ago, someone thought I was unkind because I gave the data in a sermon regarding the increased suicide rates for people who deny their God-given gender.
A person in attendance was offended, even though he was in real danger because of his beliefs that had become choices.
I found it ironic that my warning was based in both Scripture and scientific fact…but he would have thought me more “kind” if I affirmed his beliefs and his choices…against Scripture and the facts.
Even though his beliefs and behaviors were dangerous.
Dangerous for his physical life and for his immortal soul.
Proverbs 27:6
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
It is not a friend who tells you what you want to hear, when you need to hear hard truth.
In just a few verses Paul will talk about people who only want to hear teaching that confirms what they want to believe…even if it is not true.
Then, the next imperative… preaching the Word is not just correction and rebuke but it also encouragement.
Encourage
Preaching the word pours courage into faltering hearts.
Preaching the word inspires endurance when times are hard and there is no visible fruit.
In Romans 15:4 Paul wrote,
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
When hope runs low it becomes harder and harder to stay faithful, to keep making hard choices.
Preaching God’s word pours in encouragement, inspires hope and leads to long-term faithful endurance.
God’s word tells us what will matter the most at the end…we don’t have to guess.
Then it tells us that what matters the most at the end, matters the most now.
This is real encouragement…to know for a fact, the ultimate meaning of your life…is huge.
And it encourages us to endure hard times, sickness, tedious days of small things, all it.
The theme song for many people who live and work all around you is U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
They haven’t…some have given up…some are looking in foolish and dangerous places…many will die with that as the soundtrack for their lives.
But I have what I am looking for…you have…because God has revealed it in his word.
In a few verses Paul will demonstrate in his own life how he has lived with purpose and he is now going to die with purpose and no regret.
That is courage…poured into our lives…encouragement to stay faithful.
And Timothy…Paul wrote, “you are to do all this with great patience and careful instruction.”
Great patience and careful instruction mean that preaching God’s word is serious business.
I am not giving a lecture, or a speech, or a talk.
This is the proclamation of God’s word so that we, God’s people will live faithful lives.
That may sound grandiose…but it’s not…in fact…Paul wrote in another letter that God uses what looks like foolishness to the world (the preaching of the gospel) to save those who believe.
Next in the midst of his solemn charge, Paul gives another solemn warning.
3,4: For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths
That is a future that had already arrived and is with us still.
“The time will come” had come…but it would continue and increase.
He is preparing Timothy for ongoing challenging times…these times would ebb and flow…in history and in his own ministry and life.
The pendulum of history will swing then move back towards center…then swing past center…
but there will always be people who want teaching that tickles their ears…and there will always be teachers happy to give them what they want to hear.
The very thing Timothy is to teach, some people will not put up with.
With that warning, Paul returns to his charge.
- But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Four concise challenges to Timothy:
- Keep your head in all situations.
-Different translations: “Be sober-minded” “Exercise self-control” “Keep your wits”
A contemporary idiom that might get to the gist of this is: “Don’t freak out.”
Rudyard Kipling was a late 19th and early 20th century English writer, most famous for “The Jungle Book”
But also for a poem entitled “if”
Not to be confused with the 70’s soft rock hit by the group Bread.
Yes, a song named “it” by a group named Bread.
Kiplings poem begins with this line:
“If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…
Every line after that begins with “if” and gives some example of “suck it up” “take risks” and then the poem ends with…”Then you’ll be a man my son.”
Mohommed Ali kept a copy of this poem in his wallet throughout his adult life.
Paul would probably like his opening line, “If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”
But he would not like many of Kipling’s following lines…or the world view that they came from.
Kipling called himself a “God fearing Christian atheist”
Which is, of course, a nonsensical collection of words.
He lived with a hogpodge of his own values taken from a smorgasbord of sources…the Bible, Hinduism, English culture, and his own ideas.
Paul wrote: “Keep your head in all situations”
Kipling wrote: “If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…
Paul’s charge was based on the God of the universe who has given us his word…this the foundation for not “freaking out”
Kipling’s challenge was based on “human discipline” and really, a lot of image management.
It doesn’t look good to freak out…so look like you are in control (British stiff upper lip).
Paul’s challenge is not about image management but about spiritual leadership.
Keep your head means look at life, challenges, victories…everything through a biblical lens.
Keep your head in all situations…stay focused on what it is real and true…the gospel is real and true
Then: Three quick follow ons…that are content laden
- Endure hardship: here he goes again…this the 10 time in two short letters he mentions this…do you think this is an important point?
- Do the work of Evangelism:
-Evangelism is work…Timothy is to do the good, hard work of evangelism.
-This includes:
- The hard work of building relationships with non-Christians
- The work of sharing the gospel with those friends
- The work of following up with them (teaching them to walk with Jesus)
This is all work.
- Discharge all the duties of your ministry.
This is essentially an “Etc.”…do everything God has called you to do with zeal, energy, and faithfulness…when you lack zeal…be faithful anywayh.
Last week I got home at 9:30 and was happy that the day was over.
Then I got a text…telling me that the day was not over.
That very day I had spent a lot of time reflecting on this passage.
And now, feeling tired, not all fired up to “serve God”
I got in my car, prayed on the way to the hospital that I would faithfully “Discharge all the duties of my ministry.”
This all feels like very normal stuff…don’t look for magic…look for God to move in the normal…in the tired, in the small, in service to others.
Okay, that’s the charge…then he adds a very personal testimony to finish the letter.
I will read just the first couple of verses in a few minutes
You can read the rest this week and as you do notice that Paul is not just giving biographical and logistical information…he is validating with his own life what he is calling Timothy to.
All that Paul has charged Timothy with…he has lived out in his own life.
Like…
He is finishing well.
He is looking to eternal gain not just at temporal pain
Some people close to him have turned on him, deserted him…they have opposed the truth…just like he said would be true for Timothy.
He has suffered for the gospel…but the gospel is for him, great gain.
God has given him the strength to endure through it all.
His closing, which I hope you read this week, is…Timothy, all I have charged you with…I have lived out…you can live it out as well.
I will conclude with this
First a reminder: Paul is writing to a pastor, Timothy.
But what the pastor is to lead in, the church is to follow in.
Now, a concluding charge to all of us: Decide today/decide anew…to be all in on the gospel.
You can, it is not presumption on the future it is confidence in God.
Decide today to be able to say this at the finish of your own life.
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,
To be able to say that at the end, we must seek to live it out day by day.
This happens, through continually dying to self, offering yourself as a living sacrifice, seeking to serve not to be served, putting the interests of others ahead of your own.
Not doing what you feel, but doing what you know is real.
All this and more points to a life of being poured out like a drink offering to the Lord.
A drink offering was…wine poured out at the end of a sacrifice…it symbolized the finish of the offering.
To live being poured out like this means:
*Live surrendered: hold nothing back.
*Live with perspective: Continually regain an eternal perspective:
Paul didn’t see his impending death as a tragic and meaningless end, but it was the final of life offered to God…it was Paul finishing well.
-So Live faithfully: The end of a faithful life is about finishing a life not losing a life.
Do not despair if your perspective is not there yet…keep heading that way.
For most of it…our perspective comes and goes…we tend to leak perspective.
Last week in a very honest, and good talk with my daughter Casey she asked me if I was open to input.
I said, “Usually, at first, no…but always later, yes.”
I said, “I am like the son in the parable who is told to go to the field who says, “no”, but then, I always go.”
I don’t think this is good, but it is true…and I want it to be different…and I will keep leaning and seeking to change.
My point is…if you look at this high bar of “being poured out like a drink offering” and think…that’s not usually me.
I am still selfish and fearful and insecure and foolish…okay.
Keep repenting, keep coming to your senses and keep going out into the field of faithful obedience.
Timothy needed encouragement, he needed a restored perspective…we do as well.
That’s what we are doing right now…be encourage by God’s word, Spirit, and People.