Baby Dedication

This last Sunday we had a baby dedication service for Noah. Glen (one of the elders) did the dedication, and one of the most challenging things he said was taken from Duet 6, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." He said according to this verse, we have no "days off" from contantly teaching Noah about the Lord, and to be the utmost examples to him as parents. We were committing ourselves to this daunting challenge!

Praying for Noah

The dedication

Here are the notes from the service....it was really powerful. Because Noah was sick and teething, I was so grateful to read these afterwards because it was hard to concentrate on what Glen was saying because I was just trying to keep Noah from crying! Poor thing. Clint's parents came down for the special occasion too!
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First and foremost we have God who is the Sovereign and Supreme Creator of all things and He is worthy of all honour, glory, worship and praise and it is He who blesses us with children. PS127v3 confirms that “children are a heritage from the Lord”. The point of a dedication service is first and foremost to acknowledge God and the fact that he gives life and sustains life and it is he who has “knitted Noah together in his mother’s womb” as we are told in Ps 139v13. And it is to Him that we would come and ask that He grants Noah health and vitality and that, as He cares for the sparrow that falls to the ground, so will He care for Noah each and every day of his life and gently and quickly lead Noah to that point in his life when he comes into a saving knowledge of God through the prompting of His glorious Holy Spirit and on the basis of the finished and perfect work of His only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly we have the parents to whom God has given Noah as a gift but also with the charge of Eph6v4 that they “do not provoke Noah to anger but bring him up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” and the charge to Clint and Kim is that they love Noah with such intensity that he grows up to trust them long after his childish days are over and that they commit to applying the corrective discipline and training recommended in God’s word so that Noah will develop self control, discernment and great wisdom based on God’s infallible word. Finally that Clint’s fitness to be an Elder amongst us will be affirmed as we observe his godliness in leading his home and equipping Kim to be a mother who Noah will readily respect and honour because of her faithfulness and love in caring for him. Clint and Kim – do you promise to do these things to the best of your ability in the strength and grace that God gives you? “We do”

Thirdly we have Noah Knightley Archer who is blissfully unaware of the significance of this occasion but who today will receive an inheritance that no earthly treasure could ever compare to and that is the pledge of his parents to love him and nurture him and faithfully instruct him in the things of God and ultimately lead him to that point where God will remove his inherent spiritual blindness and replace it with life and light that qualifies him to dwell in God’s presence forever. He will receive another great blessing today….

That leads me to the fourth party involved today and that is the rest of us who are called today to witness the pledge that Clint and Kim have made and to add to that our pledge to pray regularly and faithfully for both the parents and the child that God will bless and keep Clint and Kim especially in the trying times that will come and also that God will not delay in granting Noah the ultimate blessing which in the words of 1Peter 1v3&4 is for Noah to declare “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy He has caused me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for me…” To the congregation here present will you pledge yourselves to do these things? “We do”