The SermonCentral.com Weekly Newsletter
—June 21, 2004

Theme: Special Services: Baby Dedication

Know What Not to Say "Disregarding another person's faults preserves love; telling about them separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9 (NLT) I was about 13 years old. I had only been going to our little country church for a few months. My younger brother and I lived a couple of miles away, so one Sunday night we road our bikes to church. We arrived an hour before the Sunday night service. No one else was there, and the door to the church was unlocked. We snuck in and started goofing around. We turned on the sound system and started playing with the microphones. At first we were just making stupid noises. After a little while I started my rendition of a crude song by Queen called "Get Down Make Love." After a half hour of being stupid and singing the worst songs we knew, the office phone rang, so we ran back to answer it. We slid into the office and screeched to a stop. Our young minister, Mark Scott, was back there. He had heard everything. We turned and hightailed it out of the church. We hid in the cemetery behind the church in case he was going to come out and confront us. We debated on whether we should ride our bikes back home and never come back, or if we should just take our lumps. When people started showing up for the Sunday night service, my brother and I decided to face the music that our "music" had created. We slunk into the church and slouched in the back row, hoping not to be seen. We sat through the worship songs too afraid to open our mouths. Then pastor Mark got up to preach. He greeted us all and said, "I'd like to thank Brian and Mark Mavis for entertaining me earlier with some of their singing." I thought, "Oh no, here it comes; he's going to tell everyone the horrible things we were singing about in church." But he didn't say anything else. He just looked over at us and smiled. Then he transitioned into his sermon. I have no idea what he said that night, but I'll never forget what he didn't say. My affection for ministers, Mark, and God grew a lot that evening. It was my first experience of grace in preaching, and it was done through leaving out what could have easily been included. Your Partner, brian@sermoncentral.com

In This Issue

1. Top 5 Sermons On Baby Dedication

2. Upcoming Newsletter Themes

3. Top 5 Illustrations On Baby Dedication

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1. Top 5 Sermons On Special Services: Baby Dedicatioins

A True Baby Dedication
by Jerry Shirley: 1 Samuel 1:27-28
Question: Have you ever given your children back to God? (Some of you 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!”) more

Parent-Child Dedication Service
by Andrew Chan: Psalms 127:3-5
Anyone here want to know a measure of God’s blessing here. I’ve got 4 of them! They are a blessing. They are a joy! They have taught me more about God and His love and His joy. In fact they are spoken of as a “heritage” i.e. a legacy or something more

Taking Care of the Little Ones
by Rick Stacy: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
In this life there are certain "Rites of Passage". Some are connected to the passage of years. For example when you reached age 5 and got to go to school after waiting for all those years - then you reached age 18 and more

Megan’s baptism - Just the beginning
by Martin Dale: 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Paul says at the end of his life:
“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race and have remained faithful”
In contrast to Paul’s completion of faith here on earth, this morning marks a more

Child Dedication Service
by Ray Scott: Psalms 127:3
God sees children as important … so do these parents.
Ps. 127:3 says: “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Some gifts have some strings attached … some do not. In this case, more

2. Upcoming Newsletter Themes

3. Top 5 Illustrations On Special Services: Baby Dedications

JUST A DRINK OF WATER
A small boy is sent to bed by his father. Five minutes later....
"Da-ad...."
"What?"
"I’m thirsty. Can you bring a drink of water?"
"No. You had your chance. Lights out."
Five minutes later: "Da-aaaad....."
"WHAT?"
"I’m THIRSTY. Can I have a drink of water??"
"I told you NO!" If you ask again, I’ll have to spank you!!"
Five minutes later......"Daaaa-aaaad....."
"WHAT!"
"When you come in to spank me, can you bring a drink of water?"

Contributed by: Michael Biolsi

LIKE THEIR PARENTS
Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents. Give them a target to shoot at. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern which they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy.

SOURCE: Billy Graham, The Hour of Decision, 1958

Contributed by: Michael McCartney

PRICELESS
I heard an interesting news item this week. According to the US Government it will now cost $160,140 for the average middle class American family to raise a child to the age 18. If you are quick on the draw with your math facts you just estimated what it may cost you to raise your children. For Susie and I, if the estimates are correct, it will cost us around $800,000 to raise our 5 kids, and that doesn't include college! We could be over one million dollars if you were to add college costs for our five kids.

When you stop to think about it, the cost of raising our kids is still a real bargain. $160,140 over eighteen years works out to only about $8,897 per year, or just $741 per month. Now that is only $24.37 per day or about $1 per hour. That's a deal!

Some might argue that investing our money in something other than children would give us a better return on our money. With the right investment strategy parents could skip having the kids and just get rich. Before we jump to any conclusions, just what can you get for your investment of $160,140 per child these days? For only about $1 per hour you will receive the following:

Baby's first steps, and their first words, "Mama, Dada!”
Small hands to hold and bear hugs that hold on tight.
A lifetime supply of butterfly kisses (a.k.a. perma-kisses!).
The chance to be the tooth fairy.
The opportunity to always believe in Santa Claus.
Story books to read each night.
Bedtime prayers to peek inside their hearts.
More "I love yous" than you could ever count.

As the MasterCard commercial would say, "Raising your kids to 18: $160,140. All the love and laughter you get through those 18 years: PRICELESS!"

Contributed by: D. Greg Ebie

TWENTY WAYS TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO USE DRUGS AND BECOME HOODLUMS, TRAMPS AND REBELS.
1. Never eat together as a family.
2. Never have weekly, monthly, or annual family outings that they can look forward to as a family unit.
3. Talk to your children, not with them; never listen.
4. Punish your children in public, and never praise them or reinforce their positive behavior.
5. Always solve their problems; make their decisions for them.
6. Leave the responsibility of teaching morality arid spiritual training to the schools and the church.
7. Never let your children experience cold, fatigue, adventure, injury, risk, challenge, experimentation, failure, frustration, discouragement, and so on.
8. Threaten your children (e.g., “If you ever try drugs or alcohol, I’ll punish you”).
9. Expect your children to get A’s in all subjects in school.
10. Always pick up after your children, and don’t encourage them to accept responsibility.
11. Discourage your children from talking about their feelings (anger, sadness, fear, etc.).
12. Be overprotective, and don’t teach your child the meaning of the word “consequence.”
13. Make your children feel that their mistakes are sins.
14. Put your children off when they ask “Why’?” and tell them, “Because I said so,”
15. Lead your children to believe that you are perfect and infallible.
16. Keep your home atmosphere in a state of chaos.
17. Never tell your children how much you love them, and never discuss your feelings with them.
18. Never hug them or display affection in front of them.
19. Always expect the worse, and never give them the benefit of the doubt.
20. Don’t ever trust them.

Contributed by: Rick Davis

GOOD BOUNDARIES
[Children have] a great need to know where behavioral boundaries are and who has the courage to enforce them. Years ago, during the early days of the progressive-education movement, an enthusiastic theorist decided to take down the chain-link fence that surrounded the nursery-school yard. He thought the children would feel more freedom of movement without that visible barrier surrounding them. When the fence was removed, however, the boys and girls huddled near the center of the play yard. Not only did they not wander away, they didn’t even venture to the edge of the grounds. Clearly, there is a security for all of us in defined boundaries.

SOURCE: From the Focus on the Family website: [excerpted from Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Dr. James Dobson with the permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc.]

Contributed by: Bruce Emmert

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