A Dedication CeremonyDecember 7, 2008

This Occasion May Not Seem New

• Numbers 7- New Tabernacle dedicated– With 12 Chiefs of Israel sacrificing for 12 days

This Occasion May Not Seem New

• Numbers 7- New Tabernacle dedicated• 2 Chronicles 7- New Temple dedicated

– 7 day feast with 8th day for a solemn assembly

This Occasion May Not Seem New

• Numbers 7- New Tabernacle dedicated• 2 Chronicles 7- New Temple dedicated• Ezra 6- 2nd Temple dedicated with

– 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs– 12 goats & Levites set in their divisions

This Occasion May Not Seem New

• Numbers 7- New Tabernacle dedicated• 2 Chronicles 7- New Temple dedicated• Ezra 6- 2nd Temple dedicated • Nehemiah 12- New wall dedicated

– Scattered Levites gathered in– With singers, instruments, choirs– Joy of Jerusalem heard far away

This Occasion May Not Seem New

• Numbers 7- New Tabernacle dedicated• 2 Chronicles 7- New Temple dedicated• Ezra 6- 2nd Temple dedicated • Nehemiah 12- New wall dedicated• John 10:22- feast of dedication

– Hanukkah, Judas Maccabeus,– Purging Temple, rebuilt the altar,– Ran Syrians out in 164 BCE

Acts 5:1-4

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's

knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at

the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived

this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

A New Concept

• What we have is ours!• …till we give it back to

God

This is why we don’t dip and use

any way we choose

• In Old Testament they dedicated buildings

• We have a New Covenant…– God’s building is not brick and mortar– God’s building now is people and love

I Peter 2:4-5

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and

precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be

a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus

Christ.

Christians are living stones and a spiritual house

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If

anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and

you are that temple.

Christians are a holy temple and the Spirit’s dwelling

The building that the Lord wants

dedicated under his New

Covenant is the spiritual building,

the hearts of believers.

1 Corinthians 7:35

I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote

good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

Undivided devotion… that’s dedication

Acts 2:42

And they (continually, NASV) devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Continually devoting… that’s dedication

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of

Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have

overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can

testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of

taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first

to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Giving self to the Lord… that’s dedication

Romans 6:17

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become

obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you

were committed,

Committed obedience… that’s dedication

Romans 6:4-5

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by

the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we

have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united

with him in a resurrection like his.

The new life of dedication starts at baptism.

Real glory is given to God in a dedicated heart, by becoming a living stone.