Giving Up, Everything.

Dedication Service for Joshua Sparks, son of Jo and Terry.

What an awesome thing it is to be parents.  The Bible speaks a lot about parents and how they are to treat their children.  But one of the biggest things we do in dedicating our children is to thank God for them and then to give them back.  It’s almost like the Lion King with Simba being offered up to the heavens by his father, but not like that either!

1. She Gave to God

1 Sam. 9-19:  Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up.  Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house.  In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.  And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”   As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

She said, “May your servant find favour in your eyes.”  Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.  So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”  When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfil his vow,  Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”

The amazing thing is that Hannah was so desperate to have a child that when she did, she gave him up to be raised by the priesthood.

• Hannah prayed: In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.

In Hannah’s time not only was there the anguish of not being able to become a mother (something that many are familiar with today) but also the shame of being barren.  It was viewed as her fault, despite the love of her husband.  This picture of her weeping bitterly shows her pain.  She is not just having a moment of weakness, she is in again over this.

I don’t know if you have ever been in turmoil to the point of weeping over something, but if you have, do as she did, pray!  For many in our time people have discounted the power of prayer.  Prayer not only puts us in touch with our feeling but also with God and His feelings towards us.

• Hannah is misunderstood. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

People of faith are often misunderstood by those around them.  Eli is a priest, he should have known better, but there is something unusual about this – she looks drunk.  He sees the outward but not the heart.

Friends, we should not judge by the outward appearance because God looks to the heart. 

Lots of my friends misunderstood my belief in God.  It’s a crutch, it’s intellectually weak, it’s out dated, it’s irrelevant, it’s brainwashing.

Yet it’s none of those things at all.  To the onlooker faith is always going to seem strange.  It’s always going to seem at odds with society.  I have to say this [you may disagree] but our society that has become more secular and prides itself on being enlightened, is doing a great job of messing up the world.  In our enlightened civil society we have more racism than ever, there are more slaves today than when Wilberforce fought for its abolition, more disease, more teen pregnancy, more poverty, more human trafficking, more abuse, ,more debt, more war and so on, but it’s OK, because we have shunned God and Jesus.  Friends fixing the world this way has not fixed the world.  It’s getting worse.

Well I don’t want to have a rant, oh wait, I just did.  But when you look at Christians who seem to have real meaning for their lives it’s got to make you wonder that there is more to life than this!  A better way.

Hannah knew that she needed outside help!  She got it.

Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

• Hannah gave.  Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life… “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”

It seems the oddest thing to do.  She has been in anguish and then, when she does have a child, she gives him back – literally!  She did go on to have three more sons and two daughters (1 Sam. 2:21).  But she was never reunited with her boy – he lived with Eli.  She only saw him once a year (1 Sam 2: 19) and she’d take him a new set of clothes. 

When we read this we miss the humanity of what’s going on here.  She misses her boy.  When your children leave home it’s tough.  God forbid that you should ever lose a child, but sometimes this happens.  Even though here are to her children, Hannah cannot forget her son.

Sometimes Christians, who seem the most normal people, will make the most bizarre looking decisions to those who don’t go to church.  It’s more than just having a different lifestyle or even priorities. It’s more to do with values and putting God first.

I always used to think that Christians were fruit loops who were there to be the kind of self-appointed policeman in the country.  Nice, inoffensive, but mis-guided. 

Until I considered what they really believe.  Not what my family told me, my friends, or other people! 

Barbie my wife has had almost a year of medical problems due to a fall.  But no one could quite get to the reason why she had pain still.  So we asked for a second opinion.  Then a third!  Why?  Because she is still in almost constant pain.  We intrinsically know when something is wrong in our bodies.  We also intrinsically know that there is something wrong in our souls!  We may not be quite sure what it is, but something just feels out of sync.  The problem we have is that we don’t pause long enough to consider what it might be!

Hannah knew.  She knew that the only an answer was found in God.  And when the answer came she gave back to God that which she has been given.  She gave.

2. God Gave to Us

For many people they don’t want to believe that God exists. 

But He gave Jesus to die in our pace so we could live.  Jesus took all our punishment on a cross, for the things we did wrong.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For many today they ridicule Christians for their faith.  They will say, “your argument isn’t valid if you call out to your imaginary friend, Jesus.”  To be honest, ridicule we expect, but I think we will find that ridicule is not debate – it is used by those who are unsure of their own cause. 

Let’s consider for a minute or two the possibility that God gave us Jesus to take our place for all our wrongdoing, our sin.

What are the odds of that?

What are the odds of this actually happening, for surely anyone could have claimed to have fulfilled these prophecies?

Did you know that the odds of your being injured by a lightning strike on any given day are only 1 in 250 million, but over the average lifetime they are 1 in 9,100?

Here are some of the ‘odds’ about Jesus being able to fulfil the prophecies concerning the Saviour in the Old Testament.

In Jesus all 60 Messianic prophecies which are recorded in over 300 references are fulfilled.  In fact the only prophecies about Messiah that Jesus has yet to fulfil from the OT are surrounding His second coming!

Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman wrote a book entitled Science Speaks.  The book was based on the science of probability and vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation.  It set out the odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even only eight of the 60 major prophecies fulfilled by the life of Christ.

The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be:

1 in 10 to the power of 17 (1 in 1017 ) 

That's 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

That many £2 coins would be enough to cover the surface of UK 3.5 feet deep and then ask someone who is blindfolded, heading out of London by foot in any direction, to pick up on his very first attempt one specifically marked £2 out.

Odds are Jesus is who he said He is.  Most will say at least He is a good teacher.  We treat our choice of faith like filling a shopping basket.  I’ll take a little Hinduism and Buddhism because that’s fashionable, a touch a Judaism, a little Christianity [because Jesus was a good teacher] and a smattering of vague atheism to season it all.

If Jesus is a good teacher, then why don’t we do as He said.  He made claims that no one else did before or since.

John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

He gives us no wiggle room here.  He is not one of many ways, He is THE way.  He is not one of many truths, He is THE truth.  He is not one of many lifestyles, He is THE life.  And just in case we did not get it, he says, “No one gets to heaven [to the father] except through me.  Period.”

Either we have to decide that Jesus is an evil liar, or we have to decide that He’s telling the truth.  There’s no middle ground.  Odds are, He’s telling the truth!

3. We Give to God

I think Christianity needs to have a health warning.  It costs everything.  It’s not a lifestyle choice.  It more completing that that. 

God gave everything and demands everything of us.  But He prises us a new life, a life full of potential, hope and freedom.

John 10:10: … I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

People will call Christians gutless but in my experience they’re the gutsiest people in the world.  Because the anguish we all have, but choose to stifle in the business of life, can only be satisfied by standing up to the mark.

When we realise what He has done, why He has done it and that He still seeks us out, then we are left with little alternative to come and find out more.

Wrapping it Up

I’d love to invite you to join us on our Alpha Supper for more of a chat about these things.  But I know you may not be able to make it.  So I have a limited amount of free gifts for you.  They’ll start the ball rolling and give you an idea of what faith in Christ is all about.