Child Dedication 2024

One of our greatest privileges is to dedicate our children to the Lord. We recognize that God is the one who gives children; they belong to Him before they are entrusted to us.

Psalm 127:3 - Behold, children are a gift of the Lord…

Before they were entrusted to us, they were God’s creation and He has a plan and purpose for each of their lives. Hannah recognizes this and says of her baby Samuel,

1 Samuel 1:28 (NASB95) - 28 “So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.”

A dedication does not bring about the salvation of the child. Instead: what we will be doing is asking parents a set of solemn promises that they seek to uphold and we do so in the presence of the gathered body of Christ.

God calls every parent to the task of training up their children.

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) - 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV) - 4 (FATHERS)…bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

In this time of dedication, we don’t just dedicate these children to the Lord, but also to consecrate these parents to the Lord as they raise these children that God has entrusted to them.

Psalm 78:5–7 (ESV)

5 He appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

This Psalm establishes three priorities that parents are instructed to pass on to their children…

1. Parents should teach their children to set their hope in God.

2. Parents should remind their children of God’s great deeds. (Don’t forget what God has done).

3. Parents should teach their children to keep His commandments. (Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments).

PERSONAL

The parents on stage are seeking to uphold these admonitions found in Scripture. Let’s meet our contestants shall we?

First, we have Marcus and Kelly Deboer who come to dedicate, Loretta Lynn Deboer.

Next, we have Jordan and Anna Kooi who took us up on our three for one deal; they come to dedicate:

Paige Elliott, Kennedy Layne, and Georgia Blayke Kooi

Let’s start with

Loretta Lynn was born on June 25, 2022, which is the same date as her older sister Caroline. This makes it a lot easier to remember birthday’s but a lot more is at stake if you forget!

I think that Loretta is going to be known as someone who is good at sharing because not only does she share a birthday with her big sister, but she also shares her middle name with her mom. Kelly.

So, Loretta Lynn is not named after the famous singer, she is named after the famous Kelly Lynn.

The verses that Marcus and Kelly chosen to have read for this time are an awesome prayer of blessing. This is what the priest would pray over God’s people in the OT. It reads…

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

This passage is a picture of God ability to shower His blessing son us by causing His face to shine upon us.

What an image. The God of the universe smiling upon us. His grace and favor extended to us even though we don’t deserve it. It comes to us as a gift.

What a tremendous God we have who gives us His good gifts. Gifts like Loretta Lynn.

Next we have:

Paige Elliot and Kennedy Layne who were born on July 22, 2021.

I sense a theme developing here of sisters sharing birthdays! Makes it easy to remember, but there is nothing easy about raising twins!

Just a point of interest, the men in these families are outnumbered (7 /2)! We can be in prayer for them!

The names Paige Elliot and Kennedy Layne have a nice ring to them and that is why they were chosen. You guys just liked the names, and so the names Paige Elliot and Kennedy Layne were given.

The names given to them were unconditional kind of like the love you give to them; its unconditional as well. You like the names, just because you like them. You love these little girls, just because you love them. Your love for them isn’t conditional upon anything external to them.

You just simply love them. That is the way God loves us!

Next we have Georgia Blayke, who was born on Feb. 24, 2023. You might not know this and neither did I until I googled it but, Georgia Blayke shares the same birthday as Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple! Whether you like it or not, he changed the world with the iphone.

He found motivation for inovation from quote from the famous hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. Wayne said,“"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Jobs went on to say, “And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will.”

Well Georgia Blayke is one of invoative creations of God that has been gifted the world. It’s your honor and privelege as her parents to help her develop into the unique gifting to be a blessing to others. And we know that the state of the world is a tough place to exist in and the verse you have chosen for your daughters is such a “backbone” type of verse to help us all who we are uniquely created by God to be.

Joshua 1:9 ESV

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

God will be with these little ones. God will be with these two moms. And God will defiantly need to be with these two dads wherever they go! It’s our joy to watch how God will work in the coming years! He will work through our efforts, so with that in mind, I want to ask a set of Aspirational questions, to which you may respond, “We Do.”

1. Do you desire to publicly dedicate your children to the Lord, to be His special possession and to be used for His Glory?

2. Do you covenant before God to teach your children the Holy Scriptures and to seek to lead your children to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

3. Do you dedicate yourselves in praying for divine guidance in raising these young ones?

4. Do you dedicate yourselves to set examples to live by and look up to, the example of Godly parents?

5. Do you by these promises dedicate these children to God?

To the church

Stand in solidarity and commitment.

To those assembled here:

“Inasmuch as this responsibility cannot be discharged by these parents alone, and must be shared by us all that make up this community of Faith, do we as witnesses of these promises, dedicate ourselves to these families, assisting them in various ways to help them uphold their promises? If so, respond, “we do.” - Let’s pray