Please, Lord, please, we're asking that through the comfort of the Holy Spirit, through your great grace, that you would help the Beer family at this moment, the friends and co-workers of John, his brother Gerald, who is a co-worker in the ministry. Lord, I pray that they would rest in your sovereignty, that they would be still and know that you are God. And I pray for John. Lord, I do not know the level of consciousness, the level of understanding that he is in now. But Lord, I know that you are a God who can break through at any time. And I just pray, Lord, that you would hold him. in your wonderful, gracious hands, and that you would do all your holy will. Please, Lord, help us to remember this family in prayer throughout the week, and help us to see that you are a God who does all things well. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, Deuteronomy chapter six is where I want to direct your attention to this evening. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter number six, and our introductory text will be verses three through nine. Deuteronomy chapter six, beginning in verse three. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Tonight I want to preach a sermon entitled, Why I Do Not Practice Baby Dedications. Why I Do Not Practice Baby Dedications. Among the many questions that have been pitched my way by others over the last several weeks, the subject of baby dedications surfaced, which spurred many thoughts that I felt would be beneficial for me to expound upon in a church service like this one. The question that was recently asked of me was, quote, do you perform baby dedications at Calvary? And the gracious yet assertive quick answer to this particular question is an unapologetic no. I do not do baby dedications at Calvary, which naturally leads to the why not question. You do not do baby dedications as a pastor among your church? Why not? Do you have something against babies? Do you not like children? Are you against praying for God's blessing on a child's life? Do you not realize that most pastors in most churches have baby dedication Sundays? This is the common thought process of those who hear that I do not do baby dedications. You do not do baby dedications? This is a little strange to me. I've never met a pastor that is unfavorable toward baby dedications. I've never been to a church that does not practice baby dedications. What is your reasoning behind your refusal to do something that is so harmless and helpful? Why, why, why? How, how, how? Well, before I provide you with the reasons why, I personally do not encourage and perform baby dedications. So that we all know what we are talking about, let me begin by explaining what a baby dedication is. It's possible that some may be here tonight not knowing what a baby dedication is. You've never heard anything about baby dedications and you have never seen a baby dedication. So in the introduction of the pastor's sermon on baby dedications, you're sitting there absolutely perplexed about the question that the pastor is seeking to answer. If this is you, let me in my first point describe for you what a typical baby dedication involves. Quoting from an article on the subject of baby dedications that I found on gotquestions.org, baby dedications or child dedication is a symbolic ceremony undertaken by Christian parents soon after the birth of a child. Some churches perform these ceremonies in mass and have several couples and children participating at the same time. The rite is intended to be a public statement by the parents that they will train their children in the Christian faith and seek to instill that faith in them. The congregation often responds through responsive reading or some other method to affirm that they as a church family will also seek to encourage the parents to bring up the child in the faith, end quote. In short, a baby dedication is a Christian ceremony where parents bring their babies to the front of a church to publicly commit to raising their child in accordance to God's word, which typically involves a pastor praying for the family and newborn baby in front of the church, which oftentimes involves the pastor holding the newborn baby in his arm while he prays. This, in short, is a baby dedication. Following the singing, following the sermon in a church service, the pastor invites the family that wants to, quote, dedicate their baby to the Lord to come forward. They come forward with their baby. The pastor says a few things about how cute the baby is, while everybody oohs and aahs over the cuteness of the baby, which then leads to the pastor praying for the family and the baby. And just a few moments after the service, The pictures of the happy ceremony are spread far and wide over social media accounts all over the world for everyone to gush over. This is the typical ritual of baby dedication that is practiced among many Protestant, evangelical, non-denominational, and even Baptist churches. So the question that I am answering for you this evening is, why do we not practice this at Calvary? Why does the pastor refuse to publicly pray for cute little newborn babies? Why is the preacher so determined not to introduce such an innocent ceremony among the flock? Well, let me give you the three motivating reasons why I have personally avoided and discouraged such a practice at every church that I have pastored. Reason number one, I do not believe there is a clear, persuasive, biblical purpose for performing baby dedications in the context of the local church. In short, I do not believe it's biblical. Well, Pastor, let's not be so extreme. You do recall that Hannah was a barren wife who promised to dedicate her child to God if God, in His grace, answered her prayer for a son. And certainly, pastor, you understand that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord, so what persuades you to assert that such a practice is not biblical? Well, if Hannah dedicated her son, Samuel, to God, and Mary and Joseph dedicated Jesus to the Lord, Many pastors, many churches would argue that they have biblical justification for dedicating children to the Lord. Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but if these are the only and best proof text to support such a ceremony, again, in the context of a local church, then your understanding and application of the scripture is very weak. Yes, Hannah dedicated her son Samuel to God, but it was in the framework of a personal and private vowing of a vow to the Lord in her barrenness, which ended up in her bringing her child to the temple so that he might worship and serve the Lord at the tabernacle all the days of his life. So if we really want to be biblical about using Hannah as an example of baby dedication, then the next time a church does a baby dedication, we need to encourage the families to bring a sacrifice to offer to God at the time of baby dedication, and we need to leave the children at the church with the priests. Houston, we have a problem, don't we? The church is not an Old Testament tabernacle. Physical sacrifices are no longer made in a tabernacle. And we do not have Old Testament priests serving among the church. So I guess that squashes this proof text for baby dedication. Shall we examine the biblical account of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the temple to dedicate him to the Lord? Proponents of baby dedications want to argue that if Mary and Joseph dedicated baby Jesus to the Lord, shouldn't we dedicate in a public setting our children to the Lord? Well, if you will read Luke chapter two, which contains the divine record of Jesus being dedicated to the Lord, you will find that such a practice was done in fulfillment to the Old Testament law, which involved a sacrifice of a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Jesus' dedication involved obeying the ceremonial law. Jesus' dedication involved being circumcised. It involved a sacrifice being offered in Jerusalem at the temple and blood being shed. I find it strange that I haven't heard of such things being talked about at the modern day baby dedications. Can you imagine? Baby dedications, sacrificing turtle doves in front of the church. Oh, but I hear the argument, well, pastor, you are really going extreme now. The practice of baby dedication can be supported by these two examples because we live by biblical principles and not just circumstantial context. I mean, you pastor yourselves say we ought to live by principles and not just chapters and verses. Okay, I will submit to such a rebuttal as long as you think about my response to such a rebuttal. If such a ceremony, such as baby dedication, is truly biblical and necessary among the local church, why do we not read anything about it in the pastoral epistles? In all that Paul says to Timothy about ministers, serving in the context of a local church, in all that Paul tells the church about how the church should function, why is there absolutely nothing mentioned about praying for babies in a public setting? If baby dedication is truly biblical, why don't we see any specific mandate for it? I mean, there are mandates about preaching the Word. Timothy preached the Word, be instant in season and out of season. There are commands given in the Epistles, Ephesians, and Colossians about singing songs, singing hymns, and singing spiritual songs. There are exhortations about devoting ourselves to the public reading of the scriptures. There is a biblical reason why Brother Cho stands behind the pulpit and reads the scripture Lord's Day morning by Lord's Day morning. We have a mandate for that. There's a clear discernible command that is talked about in scripture about the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. but nothing about the popular, well-accepted ceremony of baby dedications. All we have are two unique accounts of parents dedicating their children to the Lord in a very extraordinary way in the context of Old Testament law. We have nothing of example or command in the context of a local church. So my first reason for not performing baby dedications in church is very simply that it is not biblical. I cannot confidently support baby dedications from clear, discernible, persuasive texts that would support such a practice. And until I am persuaded by scripture that it's something that I should do and we should do. I have to submit my heart to the truths of God's word. Now the second reason I do not perform baby dedications at our church involves its obvious influence from Catholicism and its confusion with baby baptism. do you realize that the practice of baby dedication is a relatively new practice among so-called Baptist churches? In fact, I'm persuaded that most of our Baptist forefathers would be absolutely alarmed at seeing Baptist churches doing baby dedications today. Why? because they would see its obvious associations with baby baptism that is performed among Catholic churches. You do realize our Baptist forefathers were martyred by the Roman Catholic Church because they stood firm for baptism the Bible way. Well, you say, it's not baby baptism, it's baby dedication. A baby dedication does not include water. A baby dedication is not salvific. We do not believe that the baby is given grace through such a ceremony. Okay, I will give you that. But you must rightly recognize that the ceremony does mimic the unbiblical ritual of baby baptism in a Catholic church, and some who see a baby being dedicated will naturally think that a baby dedication has some sanctifying element in it. They will. I have personally seen it, I have personally heard it in the context of a Baptist church. I have witnessed family members of the one dedicating their children to the Lord and new attenders who are ignorant to the scripture be present at such ceremonies and they wrongfully entertain the thought that because the baby was prayed for in a church by a quote, man of God, that the baby received special favor from God. So to avoid any confusion of such a thought being entertained by others, I avoid performing such a practice altogether. I personally believe that baby dedication in a Baptist church is nothing more than baby baptism without the water. Listen, I do not want to mimic my ministry after ceremonies in the Catholic church. I want to mimic my ministry after the teachings of Scripture. If we're going to be honest about things, we must humbly acknowledge that baby dedication is a man-made tradition that mimics baby baptism that has been traditionally practiced among the Roman Catholic Church. And the more I think about how influenced churches, Christian churches, have been influenced by Catholic traditions and practices, the more I am stunned. Think about it. We repeat prayers after religious men. The quote sinners prayer that is popular among most Christian churches, that's Catholic in nature. The Catholics believe in repeating prayers after a father. We encourage others to come to an altar, a physical altar to kneel down. That's not Bible either, that's Catholic. Catholics kneel down at a, quote, altar. The Bible says our altar is Christ. Many pastors lord their congregations as popes. Many of the people treat their pastors as popes. The traditions of men are preached and practiced more than the truths of God in many churches. We relate people's salvation to their association with the church, rather than a radical conversion accomplished by the saving power of Jesus Christ. And now we have the public ceremony of baby dedication. We believe that there's something special about a pastor praying over a baby. It's Catholic, Catholic, Catholic, Catholic, rather than scripture, scripture, scripture, scripture. We need to be oh-so-careful about introducing man-made ceremonies that confuse others. Man-made ceremonies that do not focus on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We need to be oh-so-careful about focusing our attention on anything and everything but Jesus Christ. And this leads to my third problem with baby dedications. Most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, baby dedications are self-focused. Most of the time, baby dedications are nothing more than an Instagram moment. You know what I'm talking about? The baby's dressed up in new clothes from Macy's. The parents are dressed up more than they usually do on a Sunday morning. because they know that someone's going to take a picture, somebody's going to take a video, and that is going to be posted on social media. You can call me extreme if you would like, but I think we need to be so very careful of giving excessive attention to anything other than Jesus Christ when we come to church. Listen to me for a moment, hear me out, hear me out. You can disagree with me, but just hear me out. There are so many things that can subtly steal our attention away from the Lord among the public worship of God. If we are not careful, we can place too much emphasis on things that are even not necessarily sinful, but things that distract nevertheless. So I'm asserting that in our coming together, we must strive to keep the primary focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3.30, what does it say? He, speaking of Jesus, must increase. What do we do? We get out of the way. We decrease. Colossians 1 verse 18, and he, that is Jesus Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, he might be exalted as Savior and Lord, that he would be made much of. Psalm 115 verse 1, not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. You can call me radical if you would like, but I think much of the casualness among Christianity today much of the social aspect of the church that trumps the spiritual aspect of the church has to do with turning our focus away from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, while focusing on more societal events and activities that focus on men. And I'm talking about even Mother's Day and Father's Day. and this holiday, and that holiday, and this news event, and that news event, and politics, and police officer day, and military day, and politicians visiting churches, MMA fighters visiting churches, sports, TV, social media, food, fun, fellowship, and 10 minutes of church announcements. Don't get me started with church announcements. Some people in churches are more passionate to preach church announcements than they are the word of God. Give me a break. Am I too fanatical? Have I lost my marbles? If I have, it's a long time ago I lost them. What I am saying is this. The church was never intended to be a social club with fun activities revolved around finite men. The church was divinely founded by the Lord Jesus Christ and it is to be a sacred community of believers who worship the triune God. Look at the state of our churches today. What is our issue? I mean, seriously, most churches today have a photo booth. As you enter into the door, take your picture in front of this screen and post it all over social media. They have cameramen going around saying now on Facebook, a new fad saying, oh, what are you wearing today? Describe your outfit for us. Where's our focus? Go online, you'll find the focus of the church. It's on the pastor, it's on the pastor's wife, it's on trunk or treat, it's on coffee and donuts, Super Bowl Sunday, Mario Brothers Sunday, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, going bowling on Friday, having car shows, having petting zoos, telling funny stories, musicians showing off their talents and so forth and onward. But where is the focus of the message of the gospel? Where is the focus of Jesus Christ? When I look at most church Facebook accounts, this is what I see. I see businesses, CEOs, and consumers. I see social activities. I see jokes and coax. I see six flags over Jesus. I see a lifting up of men rather than the lifting up of the person and work of Jesus Christ. I see people enjoying social activities rather than people truly growing in the fear of God. A sermon is boring to them, but they will stick around for dinner. I see people being entertained rather than people being edified. I'm talking about our Baptist churches. I'm submitting to you this evening that much of this problem stems from us. We have allowed this through introducing this tradition and that tradition, this fun thing and that fun thing, this fad and that fad, rather than doing what God in his word has told us to do. We've become so man-focused and so earthly-minded, we don't even recognize it anymore. We've been programmed to think all this is normal. I mean, really, truly, I'm looked at as the weird one for not doing sinner's prayer, not pushing an altar call, and not doing baby dedications. And then I say to my pastor friends, show me, show me, show me. Well, there's this vague verse here, and traditionally we've done this. No, no, show me. My third problem with baby dedications includes its subtle way of deviating the focus of the service away from Christ and placing unnecessary attention on people. I hate to say it also, it wasn't in my notes. This is much of my problem with special music. Not all special music is wrong. but only about 90% can deal with the attention that comes, or sorry, let me say that again. Only 10% can deal with the attention that comes from special music. Most people get too lifted up. It's all about them. Why do I refuse to practice baby dedications? First, because I do not see a strong biblical warrant for it. Second, because I strongly believe it's too similar to baby baptism. And I do not want others thinking that such a ceremony has any saving, sanctifying elements in it. And third, because I wanna be careful that we do not deviate our attention away from worshiping Jesus Christ. I do not want to hurry up the praising of God's name in song and the preaching of the word in a sermon so that we can have plenty of time at the end of a service to have some ceremony that focus on people, you see? Hurry, hurry, hurry, rush, rush, rush, so we can have this focus on men. That's how it used to be among Baptist churches with most, quote, prayer meetings. We're gonna have a prayer meeting on Wednesday night, right after the preaching, prayer meeting, but you gotta hurry up because the choir's gotta practice. Prayer is five minutes, practice is about 15 minutes, more emphasis on something else. I'm just speaking in generalities here. You see, we've gotten used to this. Why are we here? What's the purpose? What's the biblical example? What's the biblical mandate? Now, having given you the specific reasons why I oppose such a ceremony, in my third point, I want to speak to you about what true baby dedication is and looks like. Do you want to know what it means to dedicate your child to the Lord? Biblically? Do you wanna know what family dedication looks like according to God? Deuteronomy chapter six tells us. True baby dedication involves, catch it, parents loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and parents diligently teaching the truths of scripture to their children over and over and over. Notice it in our text, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. And these words which I command thee shall be in whose heart? Thine heart. And thou, who's he talking to? He's talking to the adults. He's talking to the parents, the heads of family. How do we know? The sentence continues. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. That's pretty fanatical. Moses is telling Israel that families need to be thoroughly, intensely, purposely biblical at all times. This is baby dedication. Biblical baby dedication involves fathers and mothers dedicating themselves to the Lord daily. setting a godly example before the eyes of their children as they commit themselves to teach their children about the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, pastor, that's Old Testament, that's Israel, okay. How about Ephesians 6.4? And you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Or how about Colossians chapter three, verse 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. You say, well, what does children have to do with this? Well, do you know what I love about the specific exhortations to children in the epistles? It teaches us that children were brought to church by their parents. It teaches us that children were among the congregation receiving the preached word. Think about it. This letter of Paul was passed around to local congregations. In that letter, as the people were together, children obey your parents in the Lord. It's not a youth pastor preaching this to children in some youth class. The children were brought to church by their parents. and they are hearing from the pastor Paul's words, children, you, I have a sermon for. Obey your parents and the Lord. Now this leads me to expose another big problem I have with baby dedications. Most of the time those who quote dedicate their children to the Lord in a public ceremony will come during the time of ceremony and neglect other services. Old parents will come on the Sunday morning when their precious child is being dedicated so they can look spiritual, but after such occasion, the parents' attendance to church with their children will be flaky. They say they want their child dedicated to the Lord, yet they do not lead their families to be dedicated to a local church. Do you see the hypocrisy? Do you see the double-mindedness? Pastors, during times of baby dedications, will give a very important sermonette about how important it is to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and then they excuse parents who treat the Lord's day lightly. They won't correct church members who take their children to the beach and to the zoo every other weekend as they neglect the assembly of God's people. I'm sorry, this is a great problem. Do you wanna know what true dedication looks like? It looks like you dedicating yourself to the Lord while you say to your child, you, follow me as I follow the Lord. Come on, parents, I'm talking to you now. You think a one and done ceremony will make your child love the Lord Jesus Christ? It won't. Think again. True dedication involves you praying and fasting. It involves you separating yourself from the things of this world. It involves you learning from other godly parents about parenting. It involves you seeking counsel when needed. It involves you reading everything you can about raising children for the Lord. Isn't it ironic how some will say, parents will say they want to dedicate their children to the Lord, but they won't read five books on the subject of Christian parenting? You see the problem? Our problem is laziness. Our problem is we're too quick to depend upon quick fixes and man-made ceremonies so we don't have to do the hard work of parenting. We've got the certificate of when our little child was dedicated. We have the pictures on Instagram. But we don't have our work gloves on. Sunday to Sunday. Our problem is we treat baby dedications as some good luck charm. All while we go on half heartedly serving the Lord thinking that we have done everything that God has required us to do. And then we wonder why so many children leave the church when they leave home. We wonder why those who have had baby dedications have children grow up who want nothing to do with God in their adult years. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it's true. And it's the same thing, it's the same thing with trusting in a Christian school, a Sunday school program, a children's church, or a youth group to make our children love God. Oftentimes we trust in the programs of the church. We look to the youth leaders of the church to create a fear of God in the hearts of our children rather than or more than obeying the biblical method of parenting. What is the scriptural method of parenting? Here it is. Earnestly praying for our children. earnestly, daily, pleading for their soul. It begins there. Why? Because we can speak truth to their ears, but God alone can transform their heart. We can bring them to church every Sunday, but unless the Lord awakens them to righteousness, it's all in vain. We need to pray, parents. And then we need to be diligent in our teaching of God's word to them. We don't depend on church alone. One sermon a week, compared to how many hours they're getting secular teaching in this world, throughout the week, is not gonna hold up. One Sunday school class, one hour a week, while they're being fed lies in the public school, is not gonna hold up. And even for homeschools. And you can have textbook after textbook after textbook, but unless you personally take the truth of God and press it on the hearts of your young ones, it's all just going to be technical, historical, distant, fictional, fairytale Christianity. So we need to teach the word of God to our children, and we need to instill within them a love for the body of Christ, not just the fun, entertaining activities that the church offers. We need to instill, parents, a love for the local church and the hearts of our young ones, and that comes by our example. What did it for me? What gave me a love for the local church? My dad's love for the local church. Me seeing him joyfully worship and joyfully serve the Lord Sunday by Sunday, Wednesday by Wednesday, through the week, through various church outreach efforts. Oh, dear parents, I pray that you will think about the weighty responsibility that we have been given by God. I pray that you will do everything you can to set a godly example before the eyes of your children. And I pray that you will view your home as your mission field. I pray that you will view your home as the place where you dedicate your children to the Lord each and every day. Parents, listen, some of you are so bogged down. I want a great ministry. I want to do great things for the Lord. You can if you'll give yourself to pouring truth into your children. That's the greatest ministry. of the local church training up the next generation. So every morning you wake up, you should be dedicating your children to the Lord in prayer. Lord, help me this day to teach them Christ. Help me this day to exemplify Christ. That's dedication. And it takes dedication. Now there are two final clarifying comments that I want to make before I close. Number one, if in the past you have had a pastor pray for your newborn child or your family as a whole in a church service through what we call baby dedications, I hope you will understand that I am not suggesting that you have performed a great evil and have sinned against the Lord. If you have, quote, dedicated your child in a public setting and your sole purpose was simply to plead for the church's prayers for your family, listen, I do not condemn you. I do not think less of you. On the contrary, I commend you. If you have had a baby dedication in a church and you know that there was no saving or sanctifying element in your child's life, I want you to understand that you have done nothing wrong. But pastor, you just said, I gave you my biblical conviction, my reasons why I don't do a tear, but I am not. did anything wrong against the Lord.