Like Arrows in a Warrior's Hand: Dedicating Our Children to God

Sermon outline

Children are a heritage from the Lord, so parents and the whole church must commit before God to raise them in His fear from their earliest years.

1. What is a baby dedication?

   It is a ceremony in which believing parents, and sometimes whole families, commit before the Lord to submit the child to God's will and raise the child by His Word. Children are a heritage from the Lord, like arrows in the hands of a warrior, and blessed is the one whose quiver is full of them.

   “A baby dedication is simply a ceremony in which believing parents and sometimes entire families make a commitment before the Lord to submit the child to the will of God and to raise that child according to the Word of God.”

   • Psalm 127:3-5

2. Jesus had time for the children

   When people brought little children to Jesus to pray for them, the disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me' and laid His hands on them. In all His busyness and His deity He made time for the children.

   “That in his busyness, in his deity, he had time for the children.”

   • Matthew 19:13-15

3. The charge to the parents

   Caring for the children is the parents' primary responsibility: train them up in the way they should go and talk to them at home about God and the decisions of life. Waiting until they are seventeen or eighteen at university is too late, so the formative years matter: teach them, tell them, and lay hands on them and bless them every day. He asks the parents to promise aloud to raise their children in the fear of the Lord, to make their homes a school of Christian instruction and to set a good example, reminding them that God has an ultimate plan for every child.

   Illustration: We don't know what these children will become: there could be a state president among them.

   “Teach them now, tell them, bless them, place your hands, bless them every day.”

   • Proverbs 22:6
   • Deuteronomy 6:7

4. Anointed and blessed

   With other pastors, including Pastor Zubeda, he anoints each child with oil while the church stands and points their right hands toward them. He declares that poverty and sickness will not be their portion, that they will be satisfied with long life, grow up in the house of the Lord, know the Lord personally from a young age and be filled with the Spirit, and that the blessing which makes rich and adds no sorrow will pass from generation to generation.

   “Poverty shall not be their portion. Sickness will not be their portion.”

   • Psalm 91:16
   • Proverbs 10:22

5. The church's covenant

   He has the parents turn and present their children to the congregation, and charges the church to do all it can to support and encourage them in the ways of the Lord, show kindness to the little ones, set a good example and receive each child as God's heritage.

   “I charge you as church to do all that you can to provide support and encourage them in the ways of the Lord.”

6. Principles that work

   After the guest message he returns to say that Bradley spoke simply, but every point was a principle enshrined in the Word. When you put principles in place they start to work, your confidence grows, and you carry on, moving from little faith to great faith.

   “It starts to work, and then your confidence grows.”