A Response of Dedication | Drew Ritchie

Welcome Hills Church family. If we haven't gotten the pleasure of meeting, my name is Drew Ritchie and I'm one of the ministers here and I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak to you during this baby dedication season that we're in. It was actually pretty much exactly two years ago that Catherine and I had our first Sunday here where we came and it was a baby dedication Sunday. And we are witnesses to the fact that from that day to now, our family has just been really blessed to be a part of this church family. We love how passionate this place is, all of our campuses, how passionate we are about raising the next generation to be followers of Jesus. Now I wanna acknowledge before I go any further that today can be a really tough Sunday for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. And I am grateful, this may sound cliche but I mean this, I am grateful that we serve a God, unlike other gods, we serve a God where we can hold both weariness and grief and also hope and joy in our hands at the same time. Because I believe that every single one of us, we can wholeheartedly agree, there is never a bad time to stop and to celebrate a stage full of parents with babies, right? It's always a good time to celebrate the gift of our children. Now, I wanna make an announcement as we're starting. I wanna say, coming up pretty soon is Valentine's Day,

all right? Some of you may be like, yeah, sure, duh. But if you're like me, you really could use someone reminding you, hey, just a heads up, Valentine's Day is coming up. Can I get an amen for that, anybody? Like, whew, okay, thank you for reminding me, Drew. I still have time. And here's what's gonna happen. All over the world, people are gonna celebrate Valentine's Day, and I can guarantee that at least one date night, this is what's gonna happen. At least one date night, they're gonna get together, they're gonna exchange gifts, and one of the gifts is gonna be way better than the other gift. It's just gonna happen. You're laughing because you know that's happened. You've done a Valentine's gift exchange or a Christmas gift exchange, and one of the people, you're like, whoa, you spent a lot of money on this gift. Whoa, you put a lot of effort into this gift. I got you this. It happens, okay? Somebody is gonna go on a date. Let's just say, there's this couple that goes on a date, and let's just say it's a pretty nice date. They're gonna spend like $60, $75 with a tip.

In my household, that is a nice date right now, okay? We're gonna go on a date. You know, you're gonna get pretty dressed up, maybe not dressed to the nines, but maybe to the sevens, you know, maybe to the seven and a half, eight. You're gonna get kinda dressed up and go, and at some point in the meal, you're gonna say, okay, all right, here's what I got you, and let's imagine one person says, here, I want you to open what I got you, and she opens it up, and he says, okay, so from the day I met you, I could tell there was something special. I could tell there was something that I just loved about you, and so from that day, I've written every single day in this journal about how much you mean to me, about how much I care about you, how thankful I am to get to be with you, and so I just wanted to give that to you on Valentine's Day. I want everyone to agree, that's a pretty great gift, right? Can I get like an aw, that's so sweet, aw, yeah, right? That's a great, that's a great gift, and now I want you to imagine the other person's like, oh, oh, I think I left your gift at the house, don't worry, and like, oh, no, it's right there, I see it. You brought it, like, oh, oh, I did bring it, oh, here it is, here you go, you can open it, and they start to open it, and it's like, well, I know you like coffee, so I got you a coffee mug.

It's like, oh, okay, you know, and there's nothing wrong with a coffee mug, right? But in comparison, it feels a little bit like, oh, man, a coffee mug, that's not nothing, that's nothing compared to this journal, and we see this happen all over Valentine's Day, and guess what? All of us have had a time, I guarantee it, all of us have had a time where we received a gift that was so incredible, so amazing, we immediately knew there is no way that I can possibly give a gift back that compares to how amazing this gift is, and so during this baby dedication season, here is my question for us to ask. How do we appropriately, equally respond to God's radical gift of children? Now, I know some of you may have already immediately checked out and thought, okay, well, this must be a sermon for parents, this maybe isn't for me. Don't do that, because here's why. We are a part of a church family. The people, the children that are in this space, these are our children that God has entrusted us with. I was raised to know who Jesus is, and to be the person I am by my mom, my dad, and my church family. There are a lot of people that deserve a lot of credit for helping me move from being a knucklehead

to being less of a knucklehead, and on my journey towards hopefully becoming more and more of who God made me to be. Whenever Catherine and I, when I took the preaching job at the Clifton Church of Christ, this small little rural church in Central Texas, I remember it had been six years since their nursery had had a baby, six years, and so when we moved with our daughter, our little one, you better believe that whole church said, we got a baby, this is our baby. They started a Bible class for my daughter. It was called the Landry Joe class. One teacher with Landry Joe, teaching and pouring into and discipling my daughter, and as more and more kids came to the Richie. household, this is the kind of welcome they received. This is the marquee on the street outside the building. Because guess what, they wanted everybody to know, we got another baby. They didn't say the Richies got another baby, we're happy for them, they said, we got another baby. Because when you're a part of a church family, these are all of our children, and it is our responsibility to help them know who Jesus is. And so now that that's in focus, let me ask that question again. How do we, every single one of us, teenagers, grandparents, adults, every person in here, how do we appropriately respond to God's radical gift

of children in our church home? And our story today holds the answer to that question. Whenever Rick asked me if I would preach today, and it was on baby dedication season, I just remember thinking, okay, there's a really good shot, I'm using this text, because it's a really great story. So turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter one. I wanna encourage you to open up. I'm gonna begin by introducing the story like the narrator does in the story, just pretty bluntly, pretty direct. The narrator says, there once was a man named Elkanah, and he had two wives, one named Hannah, which means favored, and one named Peninnah, which means fruitful. And the text says, Hannah had no children, and Peninnah had many children. And every year, Elkanah would take his whole family up to Shiloh, to the tabernacle, to worship the Lord, to offer sacrifices, and every single year, they would offer the sacrifice on the altar, and then they would take portions of that meat, and he would give portions to Peninnah and all her children, and he would take the best portion and give it to Hannah, likely his favorite spouse. It's very realistic that what happened is that he and Hannah were married, and then they weren't able to have kids, and then he married Peninnah.

And so you can immediately feel that there's a lot of tension in this situation. And I wanna make sure that I say, I've said this in a series before, but we have to repeat it. Just because it's in the Old Testament and in the Bible doesn't mean God says he's in favor of it, okay? So when you see this story and you say, you know, multiple wives, that seems to be possible, that's a thing in the Bible, I guess it's fine. No, God is not for this. His standard at creation was one man and one woman. And this is a deviation from that, and any time we deviate from God's creation, bad things happen, ripple effects that are painful and difficult ooze into our lives. And we see this happening in the story. Every year, it talks about how Peninnah, she taunts and makes fun of Hannah. Can you imagine what this would be like every year for Hannah to desperately wanna have a child, and every year when she goes up to be with God, all she hears is from this rival saying, man, can't imagine being like you, you're the worst, must be terrible, just constantly giving it to her. And so this year, this is what happens. She decided to get up from the meal table and go and pray. Starting in verse nine, once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray.

Instead of retaliating at her rival, she decided to take it to the Lord. Eli, the priest, was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish. I wish we could just bold that. I mean, we cannot remotely imagine how much that word carries right here. Crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord, and she made this vow. Oh, Lord of heaven's armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime. And as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut. As she was praying to the Lord, Eli, he watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. Must you come here drunk, he demanded. Throw away your wine. Oh, no, sir, she replied. I haven't been drinking wine or anything stronger, but I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. I love the comparison. I haven't been drinking, I've been pouring out my heart. Don't think I am a wicked woman, for I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow. In that case, Eli said, go in peace.

May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him. Oh, thank you, sir, she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad. Now, I wanna pause here at this point, because there's something important that we need to ask. I want all of you to think about whether you're coming with this today, right now, or whether you've had this moment before, but you've had a moment before where you have asked God, God, if you will just, then I promise I will do this. Where you've gotten to the end of your rope, where you've gotten to a point where you feel like you're drowning, and you think, I need air, God, and I promise, if you will just give me air, then I will do this or that. I hope this isn't too much to say, but when I think about the most vivid memory I have of doing this myself, you know, we have those moments where you're just in the shower, just praying to God, and I remember getting on. my knees and just bawling my eyes out saying, God, please, if you will just, then I will. We've had moments in hospital waiting rooms, waiting for the surgeon to come back, and we're saying, God, if you will just give us one more year, if you will just give us five more years,

then I will, we've prayed those prayers. And so what I want you to do is right now, I want you to think of this question. If you're a note taker, I want you to write it down. The answer, what are you desperate for? Whether that answer comes to mind immediately right now, or whether you're gonna have to think for a second, all of us carry something that we would say, God, I am desperate for this to happen. I want this so bad, God, my heart and my soul are groaning for this thing to happen. And I want you to hold onto that question, we're gonna come back to it later. Continuing in verse 19, the entire family got up the next morning and went to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah. When Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her plea. And in due time, she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, I asked the Lord for him. The next year, Elkanah and his family, they went on their annual trip to offer a sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow. But Hannah did not go, she told her husband, wait until the boy is weaned, then I will take him to the tabernacle and leave him there with the Lord permanently. And now, Elkanah, earlier in verse eight,

he says something that I just can't even understand. He says something in verse eight that you just think, you're either a bad husband or a dumb husband or maybe I don't know the context of the story. But here he says something remarkably smart and wise. He says this, whatever you think is best, all right? Log that one away, that is a very wise thing to say. Whatever you think is best, Elkanah agreed. Stay here for now. And then another wise thing he says, and may the Lord help you keep your promise. Can you imagine someone desperately crying out for that one thing? God, if I just have this one thing, then I will. And then once they actually get that, can you imagine how easy it would be for that thing to become an idol in their life? How easy it would be like, I know I said that, God, but I don't know if I can do that anymore. Elkanah knows, he says, make God help you keep that promise you made, because I'm sure it's tough. So she stayed home and nursed the boy until he was weaned. Verse 24, when the child was weaned, Hannah took him to the tabernacle and Shiloh. Can you imagine what that journey was like? They brought along a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice and a basket of flour and some wine. These are things that in Leviticus it says when you bring a vow offering, bring these things. But I'm just in awe at Hannah,

because I would give her so much credit just for bringing Samuel, and yet she's not just bringing Samuel, she's bringing even more. She's bringing even more to say, my God is the God who answered my prayers. I'm gonna celebrate, I'm gonna give him thanks with this bull and this flour and this wine. After sacrificing the bull, they brought the boy to Eli. Can you imagine this conversation? Sir, do you remember me? Hannah asked him. I am the very woman who stood here several years ago praying to the Lord. And by the way, Eli never asked her what she was praying for. She never said, I'm here praying for this. He just said, may the Lord answer your request. I'm the one who is standing here praying. I asked the Lord to give me this boy, and he has granted my request. Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life. And they worshiped the Lord there. Man, Hannah is a rock star. And Hannah teaches us the answer to our question that we asked earlier. How do we appropriately respond to the radical generosity of God giving us children? And Hannah teaches us that the answer is

to give them back to God. Or another way to say it is to dedicate them to the Lord. Now I had a lot of fun this week as I was preparing, thinking about the word dedication. There's all sorts of things we dedicate all the time. You can find a bunch of things on dedication. People dedicate books. People dedicate buildings. People will win an award and say, I wanna dedicate this award to a teacher or mentor. We see that all over the place. And what I try to do is look at all of them and say, what do these things have in common? In all of these, what are the core central things we mean when we say I'm dedicating this? And there were two things that stood out to me, two kind of major concepts. And we see them really clearly with Hannah's story. And I think they're gonna teach us about how we can appropriately respond by giving our children back. And so the first thing that we see is that dedication recognizes what God has done. When someone wins an award and says, I wanna dedicate this award to this teacher, what you're saying is you're saying, I would not be standing here today if my teacher had not helped me get to this point. That's the reason I'm holding this award. And that's what Hannah says. Hannah says to Eli, I'm that woman.

I'm standing here today. I'm holding this baby because God recognized my. prayer, God heard me and remembered, and I'm gonna give him all the credit. Notice in 1 Samuel 1.20, she says, she named him Samuel, for she said, I asked the Lord for him. She doesn't say like, I named him Elkanah, and I finally made it happen. No, she gives him, names him Samuel, which every translator can agree that that name in Hebrew means something along the lines of God heard me. And so I'm gonna name him, every time I say his name, every day of his life, he will declare, God heard me. I recognize that this baby is from God. You know, and in thinking about this, I thought of this, whenever Catherine and I bought a house in Clifton, we kinda did the whole thing where we thought, you know, Chip and Joanna, we could do that, we could fix up this house, we can renovate that. How many of you have been there? You're like, it can't be that hard, right? Okay, it isn't that easy. But, you know, we start working on this house, and I cannot tell you how proud I am of our renovation project. I mean, I wanna tell everybody. I wanna take any conversation and figure out

a creative way to show them a picture of my home renovation. You know, we could be at a Clifton Cubs Friday night football game, and someone's like, man, it's just a, it's a beautiful night tonight. I'm like, yeah, it is beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, look at this master bathroom that Catherine and I renovated. Look at that tile we picked out. Look, you see that, Catherine did that, I did that. Hey, do you wanna look at all 250 pictures in this album with me? Look at that, this is a, that's, I do that. I would, you know, someone would say, hey, y'all should come over to our house and swim. Like, do y'all need floaties? Like, oh, you know, yeah, that probably would be good for the kids. Speaking of floating, the drywall in this house, Catherine and I, look at this. We taped and floated the drywall ourselves. We did that, we did the texturing. Like, that's, that's how I was. And what's crazy is that when our oldest, Landry Joe, was born, I wanted to show people pictures all the time. I didn't even ask, I just said, I'm showing you a picture of my baby. But what's crazy is I felt the exact opposite of with those remodeling stories.

When I held her in my arms, and I looked at her eyes, and I looked at her hands, and I looked at her feet, I don't ever remember thinking, wow, God, I did a great job. All I can remember thinking is like, I do not deserve to take any credit for this miracle in my arms. I know that scientifically I played a part in this, but I don't deserve any credit. God, there's no way I could have possibly done this. You did this, God, this is your baby. You and Catherine deserve all the credit for this child. And so instead of me spending my life going, this is my baby, and I'm gonna try and do what's gonna be best for this baby to look like what I want this baby to look like, I'm gonna spend all my life looking at this baby saying, you are God's, and I have just been entrusted with trying to help you become who God created you to be. That is all I remember thinking over and over. Whenever Hannah, Hannah does this exact same thing, 1 Samuel 1, 27 through 28. She says, for this boy I prayed, and the Lord has granted my request, hold on to that word, look at that word, remember it, request, which I asked of him. So I have also dedicated, remember that word, look at that word, don't forget that word, to the Lord, as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord.

What's cool, we can't see it in English, but what's cool is in Hebrew, those are the same word. And it's kinda like, wait, wait a second. Request, petition, request, dedicate, same word. When you look in the Bible, if you were to search that word, half the time it's translated to request, to ask, to petition, the other half of the time it's translated to lend, to let someone borrow something, given, or dedicated. We see that in the Bible. I don't know why, but here's what I have to think. Because at some level, this word is a sense of, you asked me for this, and there's an expectation that the appropriate response is to give it back. It's like if someone borrows a tool from my garage. If I let someone borrow a tool, I assume they're gonna go do something good with it, they're not gonna smash someone's car with it, and I assume that they're gonna give it back to me at some point. I think that's part of the reason why these words are the same words. And they help us see this next big concept when it comes to dedicating. Part of dedicating is looking backwards and saying, I recognize that I'm only here because of God. And the other part of dedicating is looking forward and saying that dedication reserves our children for what God will do in them. When we dedicate our children,

part of what we're doing is we recognize that when something is from God, we treat that thing differently. I want you to imagine that you worked hard and you bought a car. Think about how you feel about that car. And now I want you to imagine that tomorrow, I just showed up at your house and I gave you a car. I know that they're both cars, but you would feel differently about both of those, right? You would have a different experience driving those cars. You would also, if ever it came time to get a new car, you would probably take this one that you paid for and you would sell it to try and get more money back. But if you took this car that was given to you, no way you're gonna sell that thing. You're gonna give it to somebody else because you're like. This was a gift to me, how could I possibly make money off of this thing that someone gave me? We have a different posture towards those things. And the same is true for our children. When we recognize that they're from God, it changes our posture towards praying for them, it changes our posture towards raising them, and it changes what happens next in the story. So let's talk first about praying for them. Here's a picture from when Walker, our youngest, was born. This is Rick and Jamie Atchley, our senior teaching minister and his amazing wife,

and this is Chris and Stacey Hatchett, just remarkable, amazing servants and ministers of the Hills Church for a long time. And they came, and I'm so glad that I was in the moment, I'm so glad that I was just focused on the prayers that they said for Walker, but I really wish I could have recorded them, because they were so good, and I've learned a lesson from this time, because now any time I get a chance to go pray for someone with their new baby, I try to do what they did. And what they did was they didn't say anything complicated or complex or fancy. They didn't say, God, we pray that this baby would be an Olympian. God, we pray that this baby would be a doctor and go to MIT. God, we pray that this baby would be the most athletic kid in their class. They didn't say any of that, because you know why? They know that this child is dedicated to the Lord, and so what we're gonna pray for them is just the core, basic things about saying, God, this child is yours. We pray that their whole life, they will be given to the Lord. The words they used were things like, God, I pray that this child would know your love their whole life.

God, I pray that this child would decide to become a follower of Jesus. They prayed words like, God, I pray that you give them good friends and good mentors to surround them and lead them toward who you made them to be. And we pray that you keep bad friends and bad mentors and the enemy far from this child. The basic things. As our kids get older, as my children get older, I'm sure there's gonna be more and more unique prayers I pray for them about their circumstance. And those are good and fine, but at the core, the way we pray for our children is God, these are yours. Help me get out of your way and support what you're creating in them, what your spirit is doing in them. Help us. And the second thing that this does when we see our children as a gift and when we dedicate is it changes the way that we raise them. Now, I had prepared, I had a, this is probably the part of my sermon that's changed the most. I had prepared to give you a list of examples of this is what it looks like for a good parent to dedicate their kid to the Lord. You should maybe do this more at bedtime.

You should maybe do this more with this or that, and I've just, I've completely deleted that because I feel like this is what God has wanted me to say. Because what I don't want anyone to ever say is when they ask my kids, hey, well, first let me start with a story. Let me start with an illustration. There's a famous philosopher, David Foster Wallace. He gave a very famous speech at a graduation and he started with this story, okay? It's kind of a weird story. I hope it works. If it doesn't, you'll know. Like, that didn't work. But there's these two fish that are swimming along and one of the fish says to the other fish, man, isn't the water nice today? Just beautiful water today. They're swimming, the other fish kind of turns and looks at the fish and then keeps swimming and then stops and turns and says, what on earth is water? And the point of that story is that fish, because they've spent their whole life swimming in water, they didn't really know what water was, right? They just, oh, this is just the thing I've been in my whole life, like air to us, right? I didn't know what oxygen was until I was a certain age, but I've been breathing for a long time. You know, the gravity was discovered

something like 339 years ago and yet all of human history, people have known what gravity was because they've been living in it, right? And what my prayer is and what my commission and call to you is this. I don't want my children someday to say, my mom and dad raised me to be a good American kid and they just sprinkled in some Jesus in my life. That's not what the word dedicated means. Dedication is a devotion to something. Whenever Abraham Lincoln talks about the Gettysburg Address and he says, I cannot devote this field more than the men and women who have died devoting it with their lives. And it is our responsibility moving forward to dedicate our lives to that proposition that all men are created equal. That's something that Abraham Lincoln said. He didn't just say, you know, just sprinkle in some good stuff. Because I don't want my kids to think, all right, my parents raised me to be this person and I'm glad we added some Jesus. What I want is I want them to say, the gravity around my life was all Jesus. I want my parents to say, the water, I want my kids to say, the water I was swimming in was Jesus my whole life. You know, I have this mental picture

of one of my kids playing on the playground and a kid saying to him, do you go to church? And I hope their first response would be, yeah, it's great, you should come. But I also kind of hope they imagine part of them in their mind is thinking, what do you mean do I go to church? Of course I do, that's the water. I want them to say, do you pray as a family before bed? Do you sing? I don't want them to say, yeah, that's so cool that my parents add that to my life. I want them to say, of course, that's the water. That's what we swim in, that everything. Everything above them, below them, beside them, within them, before them, behind them, is Jesus all around their life. That's what I want for my children. And if what I'm saying is having a hard time sticking, let's see if this helps. Imagine you know someone who loves a hobby and their kids love that hobby, too. That person never took their kid to a sermon on their hobby. That person never bought their kid a book, How to Love the Hobby That I Love. What happened is that person loved that hobby, that person was passionate about that hobby, and they invited their kids to do it with them. And their kids decided to say,

I love this, I'm passionate about this, I see this brings you life, I'd like a taste of that life. This is what I'm talking about. And there are some of you here who are thinking, man, I wish I had heard this maybe when my kid was little, but it's too late now, I can't change the water. I promise you, we serve a God, that if you right now call out to him and ask God, change the gravity and the water in my home, he will do it. He has the ability to do that. And so the next thing we have to talk about is that when we dedicate our kids, the coolest thing happens next in the story. We're gonna read a verse for the third time, it's worth reading three times. First Samuel 1, 28. So now, I give him to the Lord for his whole life. Say this with me, he will be given to the Lord. Notice she doesn't say, well, I showed up here today, I dedicated Samuel, and now that's done. Clearly, she knows that something is happening by giving of her son that has a ripple effect in the story. It's not a, I did that, that's over. It's I gave, I dedicated, and he will be given his entire life. And think about what would have happened in the story if Hannah had decided to say, I just wanna keep him. Think about what would have happened if she said,

you know what, I know God is amazing and all, but I'm gonna keep this child. She would have limited the ability for Samuel and God to do something throughout the rest of the Bible. You know what's crazy is in First and Second Samuel, or sorry, First Samuel chapters one and two, Hannah is the main character, the most important, besides God, she's the most important character in the story and guess what, her name is never referenced again throughout the entire Bible. Never once do we hear Hannah's name, and yet what she did by giving her child echoes throughout the pages of the Bible. Because Samuel had an impact on David, David is in the line of King Jesus, and King Jesus changes everything, past, present, and future. What she did by giving of her son made an impact where he will be making a difference in the story. Sarah Brooks, one of our members here at the NRH campus, she was hosting the other day, I was thinking about this sermon, she said something that I thought, yeah, that's going in the sermon. She said, you get to give to God and watch him write amazing stories. Now let's change that a little bit for our sermon. You get to give your children to God and watch him write amazing stories. So let me ask you, do you think you could write

a better story with your children's life than God? Do you think that before your child was born, God gave you a white sheet of paper and a pen and said, I just want you to write out the story for your child. Do you think you would write something better than God could? I know I can't. I know he's the best storyteller, and all I can do is say, God, she's yours, God, he's yours, write the story. I trust you. Now I want to end by preaching the gospel because Hannah preaches the gospel. And if you don't believe me, email me, because the gospel according to Luke, Luke's gospel, he begins with two really blatant copying from this story with Hannah and Mary. He really wants you to see Hannah's story and Mary's story together. Hannah sings a song in chapter two, Mary sings a song, they're very similar. Hannah gives a child who is dedicated to the Lord, Mary gives a child who's dedicated to the Lord. So let's talk about the gospel according to Hannah. And I want to ask you this question again, to remind you, what are you desperate for? I have a feeling someone in here has been thinking this the whole sermon. Drew, I'm happy for Hannah, good for Hannah. You know, she asked God for something,

she asked for a son, he gave her a son, she dedicated him to the Lord, I'm happy for her. But guess what, God hasn't given me my desperate thing. I'm still waiting here for my desperate thing, my one thing, and he hasn't done it for me. And trust me, God, God, I'm telling you, if you do give me my desperate thing, I promise I'll dedicate him to the Lord, just like Hannah did. Some of you are thinking that. And I think that's a very fair thing to ask. I am not God, I don't know why some people get their desperate thing and some people don't. I truly, I don't do this, or don't know this. But here is what I want to say. For any of you who are feeling that, I empathize with you, but I actually believe you are missing something really crucial. Because at the most fundamental level of who we are as people, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, the thing that we are most desperate for is to know we are loved. The thing we are all most desperate for is to know we're safe, is to know we matter, is to know we have significance, is to know that someone wants us. I believe if I took a list of everyone's desperate thing, there's a really good possibility that I could boil all of them down to one of those things. And guess what?

God heard that desperate cry. I sought the Lord, and he heard, and he answered. And he answered, like with Hannah, by sending a son, except for this time, he sent his one and only son. And he said, I hear all of the cries, your deepest cries of your heart, and I will be given every day of my life and in my death, I will be given every day, so that you would know that you are the beloved sons and daughters of God, so that you would know that you are safe, so that you know that you matter and you are wanted by me. And so, with that in mind, I would actually say, our story is just like Hannah's story in the most important level. Augustine says this, our hearts, they will never rest until they rest in thee, O Lord. Our hearts are always desperate until they rest in only the thing that Jesus can provide. And so, how do we respond to the radical generosity of God giving his son? Well, we do what I talked about earlier, we give our lives back. We recognize it is a free grace gift from God, nothing we've earned, and we dedicate our lives in worship and service to him. So, here's what I wanna do before I pray. I wanna invite every single person, I want you to just think for a second. I want you to think of the kids that are in your neighborhood,

the kids that you see in your everyday life. I want you to think about the families that sit in your section here at church. I want you to picture their faces. I want you to think about nieces and nephews. I want you to think about grandchildren and children. I want you to picture them, and what I'd like you to do, you can say it out loud or you can say it in your head, I want you to say this. God, I give them back to you. I trust that they are in your hands. Help me to get out of the way. Help me to ask for your spirit, to do everything in my power to give him and her and my children and our children back to the Lord. Let's pray. Dear God, we cry out to you. We are desperate for our children to have a relationship with you. You are the God who hears and answers. You are the giver of all that we have and we thank you. We place our children back into your hands, the hands that created them, asking that they would belong to you all the days of their lives and they would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Shape our purpose as parents so that above all else, we would lead our children into a deep and lasting relationship with you. We trust you with their lives,

which are more precious to us than our own and look forward with hope to the beautiful stories you will write through them. And the whole church said, amen.