This morning we’ve witnessed the dedication of Anslie. Brent and Natalie brought Anslie and presented her to the Lord dedicating her to His care. I want us to this morning consider what dedication is all about.
What is it that you think of first when I mention the word dedication. You may think of someone who shows perseverence to the task. You may think of something which is set apart (dedicated) for a particular task. My mum always had a pair of sewing scissors which were dedicated to sewing. We were not allowed to use them for anything else which was a problem, because you always knew where they were and they were always sharp. Did we ever yield to the temptation of using them for other things???? Wouldn’t you like to know?
Dedication - what is it all about? The dictionary defines “dedicate” as meaning “to set apart and consecrate to a deity or to a sacred purpose. to give up wholly or earnestly, as to some person or end; to set apart or appropriate”.
To dedicate something (whether it be animate or inanimate) in the general sense means to set it aside for a purpose. This morning I am wanting to focus on things dedicated to God. Things that are set apart for his use. things that are sacred and holy. We sometimes hear the words consecrate, sanctify, hallowed - they all mean similar things.
In the Bible, we read of many things that were dedicated to God. Property, spoils of war, city walls, houses, furniture and even the temple were all dedicated to God. The temple is an interesting example and worth a bit of a look.
A) Dedication of the Temple
Before the temple there was the tabernacle and if you’ve got your bibles there, please open them up to Exodus 40 where God tells Moses how to set up the tabernacle. When everything is in its correct place, God told Moses (vs 9-16) to annoint it - or consecrate it to himself. Let’s read it ...
In this consecration of objects and people, God called for them to be set aside for his purpose. Now notice the result of the consecration (vs 9 & 10). “consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. 10 Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy”.
Consecration resulted in holiness. In fact, holiness was both the motivation for consecration and the result of consecration. It was the chicken and the egg if you like. Let me try to explain. Why did the temple and all that was in it need to be holy?
In the Midst of the food laws of Leviticus, God says this ... (Lev 11:44f)
44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. 45 I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
God’s requirement was that his people be holy? It is not an option, but a command. Holiness is sometimes equated to a series of specific prohibitions - a big long list of don’ts. That is not what holiness is essentially about. To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin - literally to be consecrated to God, because in God, there is no sin. God is holy and demands that anything associated with him be holy also. But why?
If God is perfect in both his actions and his character, then he is unable to ignore or approve of any evil. He can not all of a sudden relax his perfect standard of holiness and say, near enough is good enough, just while I visit the lovely tabernacle. No. if God was going to dwell in the tabernacle, it had to be consecrated - It had to be holy - set apart from all evil. It had to be dedicated to God and his ways alone.
So the need for the dedication of the tabernacle stemmed from the holiness of God and all that it demanded. The result of the consecration was holiness.
When the tabernacle was consecrated to God, he came and dwelt in it. If we turn back to Exodus 40 and read from vs. 34 we read ...
God came to dwell in the tabernacle - not because it was lovely, but because it was holy. It had been set apart for him and he was able therefore to dwell in it and use it. Because God dwelt in the tabernacle there was power in it. What have you got to dedicate to God for his service? You may not have a tabernacle, but you still can dedicate what you have. If we set it apart for God, he can use it for his glory because it becomes holy.
Uncle Henry was consecrated. He was an uneducated tenant farmer who had been saved in his sixties. This was in a little country church in Alabama. After Uncle Henry accepted Christ, he was like every new Christian. He wanted to do something for the Lord. He noticed in the country church he had joined that no one came early to open the windows in the summertime or to build a fire in the pot bellied stove in the wintertime, so he volunteered for the job. His church was just like ours. When someone volunteers to paint the doors and fix up the church, it isn’t hard to get us to let them do that. His church said, "Yes, we will be happy for you to take care of the church house." Every Sunday he would hook up his wagon and ride to church. He would get there a little bit early. In the summertime, he would open the windows. In the wintertime he would build a fire in the pot bellied stove. Uncle Henry had the first bus route in that area, but it wasn’t a bus route, it was a wagon route.
He asked the boys to ride to Sunday School with him in the wagon, but he didn’t have many results until he started leaving some candy and peanuts in the back of the wagon. Then he began to bring more and more boys on the wagon with him. Over a period of time, a large number of boys rode that wagon with Uncle Henry to that little country church. Some of those boys are deacons in that same country church today. One of the boys is pastor of one of the largest churches in Alabama. Another one of the boys is pastor of a fine country church. The chances are you have more ability than Uncle Henry. He was uneducated. He got saved late in life. But he consecrated all that he had to the Lord - his time, his wagon, his friendship - and that consecration resulted in tremendous spiritual outcomes in the lives of people he influenced.
You may have gifts or talents that you can dedicate to God. If you do, he’ll be sure to use them. You may have a house that you can dedicate to God. He’ll use that too - for a bible study to meet in, or as a refuge for the needy. Maybe you have money that you can dedicate to God and use for his glory. I don’t know what you have, but don’t underestimate God’s use of it. God used 5 little stones in the hands of a small shepherd boy to kill a giant and rescue his people from certain captivity. God used a few small fish and loaves of bread to feed the multitudes. What do you have that he could he use, surrender it to him now and see what he can do with it..
B) Dedication of People
The other thing we see in the Exodus passage is the consecration of people. People being set apart for God’s service. Here we see the priests being set apart, but elsewhere through the whole of the bible we see people set apart to be prophets, leaders, teachers, priests, kings, etc. We are told by Paul that we are temples. Just like the tabernacle, we need to be consecrated so that God can dwell in us. Paul writes in 1 Cor 6:19
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
And again in 1 Cor 3:16 - Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
We are just like temples because if we are consecrated, God will be free to dwell in us - for we are holy.
Paul also writes in Rom 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Paul here is talking about being consecrated and there are a few things I want us to note from this passage...
1) Consecration is for believers
Romans was written to the saints of God in Rome. Here Paul urges them to be consecrated to God. In one sense, being a Christian means we become God’s and are set apart. But here Paul is speaking about consecration as being above and beyond conversion. Note however that apart from being believers there is no other limitations. Anyone can be consecrated. - the great or small, the talented and the not so talented.
2) Consecration is voluntary
Being consecrated, or being dedicated to God is a choice we must all make. Paul makes an impassioned plea here for the people of Rome to become living sacrifices. We, like the Roimans have a choice as to whether we allow ourselves to be dedicated to God. He will not force himself on us, but wants us to freely offer ourselves.
3) Consecration involves a bodily sacrifice
Consecration involves a sacrifice. Paul says to offer your bodies as living sacrificies. This conjures up the imagery of the Old Testament sacrifices where the animals were offered. The analogy is the same. An animal was given to the priest who took it to the temple and sacrificed it. The person making the offering transferred to God all his right, title and interest in it by laying his hands on its head. Paul sees that as Christians we are the temple, the priest and the sacrifice. Our sacrifice involves our whole body, mind and spirit - all that we are, being given to God for his use. This includes
our body (physical strength, our hands and feet, our ears so we can hear the cry of the distressed),
our time (let him guide our use of time and see everything, even interruptions, as coming from him),
our talents (to use them for his glory)
our possessions (take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold)
our heart (our desires and dreams - all that we are)
There was once a Christian celebration on the west coast of Africa, when converted natives brought of their meager possessions to show their devotion to Christ, a young girl only recently saved from paganism brought a silver coin worth about eighty-five cents, and handed this to the missionary as her gift to the Saviour. The good man was astounded at the size of the offering, and hesitated to accept it, supposing it must have been obtained dishonestly; but when he delicately asked for an explanation of this lavish gift, the convert told him that she had gone to a neighboring planter and bound herself out to him as a slave for the rest of her life for this coin.
Thus, she brought the whole monetary equivalent of her life and placed it as a single gift at the feet of her Lord. That is the kind of consecration which Jesus expects of those who have sworn eternal fideality to Him. It is not our duty to enslave ourselves to any human master, but we have a rare privilege to dedicate ourselves and our being entirely to our Lord.
This is why true consecration is above and beyond simply being saved. It demands that we offer ourselves entirely and unashamedly to God.
Are you living consecrated lives here this morning? Have you sacrificed all that you are to God for his use? Why should I you might ask? Paul argues here that consecration should be motivated by 3 things - God’s Mercy, reasonable service and a desire to be holy and accepted by God.
4) Consecration is motivated from God’s Mercy
Our consecration is not prompted by fear, but from God’s Love and Mercy. Some of God’s mercies include - justification, identification, sanctification, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not being condemned for our sins, daily help, heaven, health, friends, the church. The list could go on. In response to all he has given we are urged to give something back to him - we are urged to consecrate ourselves. What is your response for all that God has given you? Have you even stopped to say thankyou of late?
5) Consecration is motivated from wanting to be accepted by God
When we consecrate ourselves, we find acceptance by God because we are made holy. Just as the tabernacle and its furnishings were made holy through the act of consecration, so to is the act of offering our bodies as living sacrifices. God is pleased when we give him all that we are unreservedly. Do you want to please God?
6) Consecration is motivated from Reasonable Service
Consecration - offering our bodies is a reasonable form of service. This may be translated in your bible as a spiritual act of worship. Being consecrated involves service - service of God both physically and more so here spiritually when we offer our minds and heart to him. We are all called to serve God. Though there may be a huge diversity in what we actually do, all our service should involve a spiritual sacrifice. Are you wondering how you can serve God? What you should do? How you could be more effective? Well the starting point is with consecration - giving yourselves unreservedly to him.
7) Consecration results in a life transformed
The consecrated life is one which is transformed. It has had a lobotomy - It has a new mind - a new outlook on life which is implanted by Christ. We will no longer want to live according to the standards of this world, but will want to live according to the higher standards of Christ. It will result in a life that is lived in the will of God, happily following his will for our lives. It is a good life, a profitable life, a happy, joyous and victorious life, because it is a life that is acceptable to God.
Now from experience, many of you know that this won’t necessarily happen overnight. Consecration is a process. It is a daily, momemt by moment yielding to God in each and every daily crisis. It is simply trusting wholly in Jesus and giving ourselves up to Him forever.
Lets talk personnally now just for a few minutes... where are you in your relationship with God. Are you living consecrated lives? Have you offered yourselves as a living sacrifice on God’s altar? Or have you put most of it there, but kept the best bits back for yourself. God demanded from the Israelites that they only offer animals which were whole and without blemish. God demands all of us, not just the bits we want to give him. Are you willing to offer your whole life up to God today? There may be many of you who need to consecrate yourselves today to God. Don’t miss this opportunity.
C) Infant Dedication
So far in our discussion, I haven’t said anything about infant dedication, even though that is the occasion for us talking about this topic. Remember what I said about the dedication being a chance for Brent and Natalie to acknowledge God’s goodness and a public declaration that they will be seeking to bring up Anslie in a way which glorifies God.
Don’t be mistaken, this infant dedication does nothing for Anslie, other than encouraging her that her parents are wanting to rely on God’s wisdom in rearing her. Remember in our previous discussion that consecration was for believers and was voluntary. Anslie’s time will come when she is able to make her own mind up about Christ. Then the challenge of living a consecrated life will stand before her, just as it does for you this morning.
When Queen Victoria of England reigned as Empress of India, the Maharajah of Punjab was a little boy. To show his allegiance, he sent her a magnificent diamond. It became one of the crown jewels and was safely kept in the Tower of London. When he became a man, he went to London to pay his respects to the Queen. The young man asked the Queen if he could see the diamond. The precious jewel was brought in and presented before the Indian prince. Then, taking the diamond and kneeling before the Queen, he said with deep emotion,
"Madam, I gave you this jewel when I was too young to know what I was doing. I want to give it again, in the fullness of my strength, with all my heart, and affection, and gratitude, now and forever, fully realizing all that I do."
The Maharajah needed to come to a point in his life where he consciously dedicated himself to the Queen of England. This is what Anslie will need to do sometime in the future. Maybe some of you need to do that now. It is no good relying on an act that your parents did when you were a child. It is not enough to rely upon your Godly parents or the Godly upbringing you had. Each one of us need to voluntarily consecrate our own lives to God.
I want to finish with a story ...
There were two armies... one twice as strong as the other. The commander of the larger army sent an envisage to other asking for surrender. The commander of the smaller army called up three men. To the first he said. "Fall on your sword." The man immediately stuck the hilt of his sword into the earth and then impaled himself on his own sword. To the second the commander said, "Thrust yourself through with your spear." The soldier immediately went to a nearby tree where he fixed his spear firmly the but end braced against the ground among the roots. He backed off a few steps and then ran and fell on his own spear the point thrusting through his heart. The commander then turned to a third soldier and said, "Run and leap off of that precipice." The envisage looked over the edge of the cliff to see the small thread like shape of a river far below. The soldier came running and with a leap disappeared over the edge to be dashed on the rocks below. Finally the commander turned to the foreign envisage and said, "I have 10,000 men who without hesitation will die for me like that. . . tell your commander I demand his surrender." The envisage hurried back to their camp begging their commander to quickly surrender.
That is the kind of dedication a Christian is to have for Jesus Christ. We are to walk without fainting. . . never consider giving up but continue with determination and courage in your attempt to accomplish his will. Where are you I ask again? Do you have that sort of commitment ? Do you need to consecrate your life to God afresh? Do you need to give your life to God for the first time? If you do, find someone after the service to pray with you.
